TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Jul 19, 2021

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of the Southern District of Texas on Friday vacated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but temporarily stayed his ruling for current recipients, the ABA Journal reports. The ruling allows the government to accept applications for renewals and for new DACA applicants but prohibits it from granting any new DACA applications. Hanen ruled that Texas, and the eight other states that challenged the program, had standing, partly because they spend money providing services to DACA students. He said that former President Barack Obama’s administration failed to use a formal notice-and-comment procedure required by the Administrative Procedure Act before adopting DACA and that Congress has not granted authority to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to implement the program. President Joe Biden said Saturday that the U.S. Department of Justice will appeal the decision.