DACA Update #5: What Does the Latest Ruling Mean?

On April 24 DC District Court John D. Bates issued a complicated decision on DACA which many people seem to misunderstand. The short version is that the judge ordered a complete reinstatement of DACA unless the Trump administration comes up with a better reason for ending it. The government has 90 days to improve its original claims, and of course a higher court could overrule Bates. So the decision definitely doesn’t mean DACA recipients are safe.

DACA supporters march in San Francisco. Photo: David Bacon

Bates objected to errors in the grounds Jeff Sessions gave last September for rescinding DACA (see DACA Update #2 for other issues with Sessions on DACA). Basically Sessions' problem was that the DACA termination was going to be unpopular, so he wanted to find statutory and constitutional objections to the program instead of admitting the administration just didn't want it. But he botched the job.

Presumably the administration could use the 90 days to find a competent lawyer who could construct a better case for ending DACA.

Here’s a link to Bates’ decision, which is long and closely reasoned:

https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2017cv1907-23

And here’s the letter Sessions wrote in September to justify ending DACA: https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/file/994651/download

This is a news article on the decision from Vox’s Dara Lind:

https://www.vox.com/2018/4/25/17278644/judge-ruling-trump-end-daca-immigration

And here’s a news article on the administration’s response initial response to Bates; it’s as sloppy as Sessions’ original memo:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-fights-federal-judges-ruling-daca-protections/story?id=54720091

Finally, this is TPOI  co-author Wilson’s comment on the New York Times article about Bates’ rejection of  Sessions’ rationale for terminating DACA: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/us/daca-dreamers-trump.html?comments#permid=26871160