Federal Judge Temporarily Stops DACA Repeal

A federal judge in California gave a temporary reprieve to people who were brought to the United States as children illegally. William Alsup ruled on Jan. 9 that the government must “maintain the Daca program on a nationwide basis” while litigation over the decision by Republicans to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is going on.

Federal judge Alsup said that the administration has to process the renewal applications already received but not any new ones.

“DACA gave them a more tolerable set of choices, including joining the mainstream workforce,” Alsup wrote. “Now, absent an injunction, they will slide back to the pre-DACA era and associated hardship.”

Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration’s decision to repeal DACA, also known as Dreamers Act, which gave around 800,000 people permission to live and work in the United States for at least two years after turning 18. The Act was authorised by President Barack Obama in 2012. Thousands of Indians were also estimated to get affected by the decision taken in September 2017 to end DACA by the end of March 2018.

According to South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a non-profit organization, 5,500 Indians and Pakistanis are covered under DACA and an additional 17,000 from India are eligible for DACA.

Meanwhile, in a televised meeting between Trump, Republicans and Democrats on Jan. 9, the President indicated that he wants a comprehensive overhaul to the immigration system. He said he wants to pass a “clean” DACA bill paired with a legislation to construct the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I think a clean DACA bill, to me, is a DACA bill, but we take care of the 800,000 people … but I think, to me, a clean bill is a bill of DACA, we take care of them, and we also take care of security,” Trump said, according to Vox.

In September 2017, when the administration announced that it wants to rescind the policy, many companies and 15 states, including Washington and New York, filed lawsuits claiming that the federal government has “backtracked” on protecting young immigrants who came forward to register themselves.