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The New York federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump’s Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf was not legally serving his post when he issued the new rules for the DACA program in July.
US President Donald Trump speaks in the White House meeting room on November 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. Image: AFP
WASHINGTON – A judge on Saturday rejected the White House’s limitations on a program that protects 700,000 so-called “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
The federal judge in New York ruled that President Donald Trump’s Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf was not legally fulfilling his role when he issued the new rules for the DACA program in July.
The ruling is another victory for advocates of the Barack Obama-era program after the US Supreme Court rejected Trump’s cancellation in June.
President-elect Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in the Nov.3 election, had vowed to reinstate the program when he takes office on Jan.20.
Wolf, who has not been confirmed in his role by the United States Senate, issued new restrictions on the program in response to the Supreme Court ruling.
Saturday’s court decision said its restrictions “effectively suspended” DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, while the Trump administration reviewed how to proceed.
Wolf’s rules said that no new applications would be accepted and that renewals would be limited to one year instead of two.
They are now invalid because “the court holds that Mr. Wolf was not legally serving as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security under the Homeland Security Act” when he issued them, according to the ruling.
Judge Nicholas Garaufis said the correct order of succession had not been followed for the appointment of interim secretary.
It is not the first time that Wolf has seen the legality of his appointment as interim secretary in 2019 questioned.
Trump took office promising to halt nearly all immigration and expel the more than 10 million people estimated to live in the country, many for decades, without legal immigration documents.
The Obama administration tried to address the problem in 2012, with the DACA policy offering protection in renewable two-year terms, including authorization to work, to people illegally brought into the United States as children and then growing up here.
DACA and the subsequent DAPA program – Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Legal Permanent Residents – were executive actions by Obama to remove the constant threat of deportation for more than four million undocumented immigrants.
Trump canceled DAPA right after he took office and then went after the more established DACA, but he immediately faced a series of court battles over it.
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