Joe Biden says DOJ will appeal 'deeply disappointing' federal judge's ruling that Obama's DACA is illegal and calls on Congress to act to protect hundreds of thousands of Dreamers
Joe Biden has vowed to appeal Friday's ruling that declared the original Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program illegal as he has called on Congress to act to protect the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who came to the US as children.
The president released a statement Saturday morning branding Friday's decision by a federal judge in Texas 'deeply disappointing' and said the Justice Department will file an appeal 'in order to preserve and fortify DACA.'
A group of Republican-led states had sued to end the DACA program, which protects around 650,000 immigrants who were brought to the US as children from deportation, claiming it was illegally created by former President Barack Obama in 2012.
US District Judge Andrew Hanen sided with the states, ruling that the program violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it was created because Obama introduced it by executive order and blocking new applications.
Joe Biden has vowed to appeal Friday's ruling that declared the original Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program illegal. Biden leaves the White House to head to Camp David Friday
Immigration rights activists hold a rally in front of the US Supreme Court in 2019. Biden called on Congress to act to protect the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who came to the US as children
'Yesterday’s Federal court ruling is deeply disappointing,' Biden said in a White House statement.
'While the court’s order does not now affect current DACA recipients, this decision nonetheless relegates hundreds of thousands of young immigrants to an uncertain future.
'The Department of Justice intends to appeal this decision in order to preserve and fortify DACA.'
Biden said the Department of Homeland Security plans to issue a proposed rule concerning DACA in the near future.
The president renewed his call for Congress to agree on a permanent solution for Dreamers, hitting out that nine years on from the program's creation it 'has not acted to provide a path to citizenship for Dreamers.'
He said he was asking lawmakers to act 'with the greatest urgency' to bring an end to Dreamers living 'in fear' off deportation from the country they have lived in since childhood.
'Only Congress can ensure a permanent solution by granting a path to citizenship for Dreamers that will provide the certainty and stability that these young people need and deserve,' he said.
'I have repeatedly called on Congress to pass the American Dream and Promise Act, and I now renew that call with the greatest urgency.
The president released a statement Saturday morning branding Friday's decision by a federal judge in Texas 'deeply disappointing' and said the Justice Department will file an appeal 'in order to preserve and fortify DACA'
'It is my fervent hope that through reconciliation or other means, Congress will finally provide security to all Dreamers, who have lived too long in fear.'
Biden, who was vice president when Obama created the program, has previously said he wants to create a permanent pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.
He issued a memorandum on his first day in office directing the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to take 'all actions he deems appropriate' to 'preserve and fortify' the program, which former President Donald Trump, a Republican, tried to end.
The US Supreme Court last year blocked a bid by Trump to end DACA, saying that his administration had done so in an 'arbitrary and capricious' manner.
Friday's ruling dealt a fresh blow to the immigration program that prevented some immigrants brought to the US as children from being deported.
Hanen blocked all new applications and said the government must stop accepting people to the program.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen sided with a group of states suing to end DACA Friday
However, the judge said the ruling does not immediately affect the status of people already accepted to the program.
'To be clear,' the judge said, the order does not require the government to take 'any immigration, deportation or criminal action against any DACA recipient.'
Hanen said Congress must act if the US wants to provide the protections in DACA to Dreamers, based on never-passed proposals in Congress called the DREAM Act.
Immigrants and advocates urged Democrats and Biden to quickly act on legislation to protect young immigrants following the decision.
Calling the ruling a 'blaring siren' for Democrats, United We Dream Executive Director Greisa Martinez Rosas said they would be solely to blame if legislative reform doesn't happen.
'Until the president and Democrats in Congress deliver on citizenship, the lives of millions will remain on the line,' Martinez Rosas said.
Thomas Saenz, president of Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund , said Friday that plaintiffs will file an appeal.
'Today's decision then once more emphasizes how critically important it is that the Congress step up to reflect the will of a supermajority of citizens and voters in this country.
'That will is to see DACA recipients and other young immigrants similarly situated receive legislative action that will grant them a pathway to permanence and citizenship in our country,' Saenz said.
DACA supporters at a rally in Washington DC in June. A group of Republican-led states had sued to end the DACA program, which protects around 650,000 immigrants who were brought to the US as children from deportation
A 2019 rally supporting Dreamers and the DACA program. Supporters called Friday's ruling a 'blaring siren' for Democrats to act
Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a progressive organization, expressed disappointment at Friday's ruling, saying in a statement that DACA has been a big success that has transformed many lives.
'Today makes absolutely clear: only a permanent legislative solution passed by Congress will eliminate the fear and uncertainty that DACA recipients have been forced to live with for years.
'We call on each and every elected office to do everything within their power so that DACA recipients and their families and communities can live free from fear, and continue to build their lives here,' Schulte said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a statement Friday evening, vowed that Democrats will continue to push for passage of the DREAM Act, and called on Republicans 'to join us in respecting the will of the American people and the law, to ensure that Dreamers have a permanent path to citizenship.'
Suing alongside Texas were Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, and West Virginia — states that all had Republican governors or state attorneys general.
They argued that Obama didn't have the authority to create DACA because it circumvented Congress.
Biden (pictured Friday) has already proposed legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people living in the US without authorization
The states also argued that the program drains their educational and healthcare resources.
MALDEF and the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, which defended the program on behalf of some DACA recipients, argued Obama did have the authority and that the states lacked the standing to sue because they had not suffered any harm due to the program.
Biden has already proposed legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people living in the US without authorization.
He also ordered agencies to make efforts to preserve the program.
Supporters of DACA, including those who argued before Hanen to save it, have said a law passed by Congress is necessary to provide permanent relief.
The House approved legislation in March creating a pathway toward citizenship for 'Dreamers,' but the measure has stalled in the Senate.
Immigration advocates hope to include a provision opening that citizenship doorway in sweeping budget legislation Democrats want to approve this year, but it's unclear whether that language will survive.
While DACA is often described as a program for young immigrants, many recipients have lived in the U.S. for a decade or longer after being brought into the country without permission or overstaying visas.
The liberal Center for American Progress says roughly 254,000 children have at least one parent relying on DACA. Some recipients are grandparents.
The judge's decision comes on the day the new Customs and Border Protection figures revealed that 188,829 migrants were stopped at the southwest border in June. Pictured a migrant crosses a fence after being detained by CBP agents in Sunland Park, New Mexico
Migrants cross the Rio Grande river into the US from Mexico in Del Rio, Texas, in May
The judge's decision comes on the day the new Customs and Border Protection figures revealed that 188,829 migrants were stopped at the southwest border in June, the sixth monthly increase since the start of 2021.
It was also another increase on the 180,641 who were apprehended in May.
These statistics just account for the apprehensions, and doesn't include the migrants who cross undetected.
According to reports that is up to 1,500 people every day.
It is still not immediately clear where exactly these asylum seekers and illegal crossers are being sent after they are transferred out of federal immigration agencies' custody.
The June numbers mean that almost 1.2 million migrants could have already entered the US since the beginning of the year and more than 2.3 million people could cross into the US by the end of 2021, if the pace of apprehensions and those who avoid detection remain the same.
There also appears to be no available statistics on how many immigrants who are encountered and taken into custody are sent back to Mexico, or their origin countries, compared to those who are put in an alternatives to detention programs or otherwise released into the U.S.