Last night, a U.S. District Court in California v DHS issued a nationwide injunction stopping the Trump administration from ending DACA as it relates to renewals. The court ordered DHS “to maintain the DACA program on a nationwide basis on the same terms and conditions as were in effect before the rescission on September 5, 2017, including allowing DACA enrollees to renew their enrollments.” The administration has vowed to appeal and will likely seek to place this ruling on hold in the appellate court.
Our eyes will be on the Supreme Court today to see if the Supreme Court will issue its decision in U.S. v. Texas, the DAPA/ DACA injunction case. With the Court recessing in less than two weeks, an answer to the question of the legality of DAPA and expanded DACA is forthcoming soon. The Court still has to issue decisions in 13 cases before the end of the term.
The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has created turmoil in Washington DC and on the Presidential campaign trail. Republicans are uniformly calling on the President to refrain from nominating anyone to fill the vacancy due to the upcoming Presidential election. Within hours of the news of the Justice’s death, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader and the man who controls the Senate’s agenda, stated that the “vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.”
What just happened in the 5th Circuit?
The U.S. Court of Appeals formally upheld Judge Hanen’s injunction prohibiting the administration for implementing DAPA & DACA. The injunction prohibited the administration from implementing DAPA and expanded DACA until the litigation brought by Texas and twenty six other states was resolved. Injunctions are sought to preserve the status quo while the legality or proposed actions is resolved. Judge Hanen ruled that Texas presented evidence of the possible injury if DAPA or DACA went forward and that Texas was likely to succeed in challenging DAPA and expanded DACA.
The Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in a 2-1 decision refused the Obama administration’s request for an emergency stay of Judge Andrew Hanen’s injunction against the President’s deferred action (DAPA and DACA+). This action leaves the stay in place, meaning that the administration remains unable to proceed with DAPA and DACA relief to millions of immigrants. Two judges of the 5th Circuit found that the Obama administration was “unlikely to succeed” in establishing that Texas and the other 25 states lack a sufficient injury, or “standing,” to challenge the President’s actions in creating DAPA and DACA+.
A victory for the Obama administration in a case related to DACA in the 5th Circuit should give hope to millions waiting for deferred action of DAPA and expanded DACA. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision in an immigration case today. No, not that case, but close. The Fifth Circuit ruled in another case challenging deferred action called Crane v.
It seems that nothing is going to happen on the Texas judge’s DAPA and DACA injunction until next month at the earliest. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a series of orders yesterday that gave an indication of how the court intends to proceed with the Department of Justice’s appeal of Judge Andrew Hanen’s DAPA and DACA injunction,
Most importantly, the Court of Appeals set oral arguments on the Department of Justice’s motion to lift the injunction (“stay the stay”) for April 17.
