US judge rules Obama-era programme for child migrants illegal, blocks new applications
Houston: A federal judge in the US state of Texas has ruled as illegal the Obama-era immigration programme that shielded over 600,000 undocumented immigrants, including thousands of Indians, from deportation, dealing a blow to the Biden administration's efforts to protect people termed as Dreamers.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was established under the Obama administration in 2012 and granted protection from deportation and work permits to illegal immigrants who came to the country as minors.
Granting a request by Texas and six other Republican-led states, US District Court Judge Andrew Hanen ruled that President Barack Obama's administration had overstepped its bounds by creating the programme, CNN reported.
Hanen argued that Congress had not granted the Department of Homeland Security the authority to create DACA and that it prevented immigration officials from enforcing removal provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
He found that the policy was implemented unlawfully and ordered DHS to stop approving DACA applications, although he said it could continue to accept applications and that it does not affect the status of any current DACA
recipients.
Hanen, an appointee of former president George W Bush, a Republican, ruled that Congress had not granted the DHS the authority to create DACA and that it prevented immigration officials from enforcing removal provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
"Congress has not granted the Executive Branch free rein to grant lawful presence outside the ambit of the statutory scheme," Hanen wrote.
The judge found that the agency's interpretation of statutes was "overly broad" and those laws did not carry the authority for the federal government to institute the programme.
"DACA would grant lawful presence and work authorisation to over a million people for whom Congress had made no provision and has consistently refused to make such a provision," Hanen wrote.
