Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration From Ending DACA Program

A federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump administration must restart, in full, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA is an Obama era program that President Donald Trump rescinded. The Trump administration last year announced that it planned to phase out the program.

As reported by The Hill, In his 25-page opinion, Judge John Bates said the Trump White House had again failed to provide justification for its proposal to end the Obama-era program, under which nearly 800,000 people brought to the country illegally as children, known as “Dreamers,” have received work permits and deferral from deportation.

The restart won’t be immediate according to Politico, who notes that the order would be delayed until August 23. With his decision Friday, Bates became the third federal judge to order the Trump administration to restart the DACA program.

Fox News reports that while closing the brief, the judge wrote that at no point in this ruling, or the previous one, did the court contend that the DHS didn’t have “the statutory or constitutional authority” to end the program.

“Rather, the court simply holds that if DHS wishes to rescind the program – or to take any other action, for that matter – it must give a rational explanation for its decision,” the judge wrote reports, Fox News.