Appeals Court Says DACA Is Illegal but Keeps Program Alive for Now (Published 2022) (2024)

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court panel ruled on Wednesday that a program that protects nearly 600,000 young immigrants from deportation is illegal but allowed those already enrolled to renew their status — in essence keeping the status of the program unchanged but its future uncertain.

The decision from the three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit — one of the country’s most conservative federal appellate courts — affirmed a 2021 lower court decision. The Biden administration will need to continue its legal fight to enroll new applicants in the program, called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

The judges sent the case back to Federal District Court in Houston to consider a new administration policy issued in August to protect the program. The new regulation was intended to go into effect at the end of the month.

Wednesday’s ruling was the latest turn in a series of court rulings and administration actions that over the years has canceled, reinstated or rolled back pieces of the DACA program. It has long seemed likely that the case would ultimately go to the Supreme Court.

Immigration advocates said the ruling signaled that the only chance for DACA to survive was for Congress to pass a law to protect young immigrants, something it has been unable to do for more than two decades.

“This decision makes 100 percent clear that the options for preserving DACA in the courts are dwindling and essentially nonexistent at this point,” said Jess Hanson, a staff lawyer at the National Immigration Law Center. “We really need Congress to step up.”