SAN FRANCISCO — In a victory for “Dreamers” nationwide, a San Francisco judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration’s rescinding of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, ordering the administration to resume accepting DACA applications as the underlying case continues in federal court.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted California Attorney General Xavier Becerra a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration over its Sept. 5 decision to end the program, ramping up a heated debate over the fate of 800,000 young, undocumented immigrants. Becerra — joined by the attorneys general of Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota; the University of California; Santa Clara County; the city of San Jose; individual Dreamers and other plaintiffs — filed a lawsuit against the administration in November, arguing that ending the program caused irreparable harm to DACA recipients and the states in which they live.
“Dreamers’ lives were thrown into chaos when the Trump administration tried to terminate the DACA program without obeying the law,” Becerra said in a statement late Tuesday. “Tonight’s ruling is a huge step in the right direction. America is and has been home to Dreamers who courageously came forward, applied for DACA and did everything the federal government asked of them. They followed DACA’s rules, they succeeded in school, at work and in business, and they have contributed in building a better America. We will fight at every turn for their rights and opportunities so they may continue to contribute to America.”
In an email Tuesday night, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
Organizations such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform– which supports more restrictions on immigration — had applauded the administration’s decision to rescind DACA, arguing that the Obama administration’s program was “an unconstitutional abuse of executive authority.”
Trump announced the end of the program on Sept. 5, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stopped taking renewal applications in early October. Congress has until March 5 to salvage the Obama-era program and protect an estimated 800,000 undocumented immigrants who grew up in the U.S. from deportation.
Tuesday’s decision is the latest in a monthslong battle surrounding DACA, one that has pitted Democrats in Congress against Republican lawmakers who say the program is an overreach of power.
“If Congress is not going to defend the aspirations of our best and brightest young people, we’ll continue to fight all the way to the Supreme Court,” said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.
There are an estimated 20,000 Dreamers in San Jose, according to Liccardo.
“These are young men and women who are getting college degrees, often working multiple jobs and giving back to their community in ways that would make any American citizen proud,” he said. “It’s unconscionable that we would kick them out of the communities that they grew up in and that have raised them.”
