Today, the Supreme Court of the United States published its decision regarding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Here’s what you need to know:
The Supreme Court held that the Trump administration did not follow proper legal procedure in terminating the DACA program, so its rescission of the program was unlawful. Importantly, the decision does not address the legality of the DACA program itself. Rather, the decision focuses on that the way in which the Trump administration terminated the program, finding that it did not follow the Administrative Procedures Act. This is a huge victory for DREAMers as it means the program, as it was initially implemented in 2012, will remain in place.
The biggest question now is how the Trump administration will react to this decision. Based on the language of the Supreme Court decision, the Trump administration could attempt to terminate the program again, using a different legal justification for doing so. However, this does not seem like a very realistic possibility due to the fact that the Trump administration expended immense resources in litigating the case all the way up to the Supreme Court, and given the potential political and social backlash that could occur if it attempted to do so again after having lost the first time around.
If the Trump administration takes no further action to terminate the program a second time, those who were under DACA previously can continue to submit renewal applications, and those who never applied but were eligible under the 2012 DACA guidelines, can now submit their initial applications. This is a significant change as USCIS had stopped accepting initial applications during the pendency of the lawsuit.
If you have DACA and have questions about your renewal, or if you think you may qualify for DACA but never applied previously, please call our office at (888) 838-4858 for a free consultation. We look forward to assisting you!