This article was originally published in The Hill on August 16, 2022.
A decade ago, the U.S. began accepting applications from young immigrants for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Hundreds of thousands of teens and young adults who came to the U.S. as children without legal status lined up to apply. Now, roughly 610,000 DACA recipients still rely on two-year extensions to live and work in the only country they know — all while the program itself is challenged again in the courts. Without timely congressional intervention that provides interim protection, Dreamers might start being deported.
Last month, a three-judge panel in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard oral arguments led by the Texas attorney general, who argued that the DACA program exceeded executive authority and cost Texas hundreds of millions of dollars. Conversely, the U.S. Justice Department defended the program, fighting an uphill battle against a federal judge in Texas ruling one year ago declaring DACA illegal. In the interim, current DACA recipients are still allowed to apply for renewals, but new applicants are out of luck. Regardless of the Fifth Circuit’s outcome (expected this fall), it will be appealed to the Supreme Court, which could rule by the summer of 2023.
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