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A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s bid to move ahead with its planned cancellation of a program that has provided protections and benefits to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. when they were children.
The ruling, by a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said the administration voiced inadequate and flawed reasons for its decision in September 2017 to terminate an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
Those challenging the administration’s decision “are likely to succeed on their claim that the rescission of DACA—at least as justified on this record—is arbitrary, capricious, or otherwise not in accordance with law,” the court said.
The Justice Department, which is representing the administration, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decision was the first from a federal appeals court on the White House’s termination of DACA, and follows rulings by multiple trial judges who said the administration’s cancellation was legally deficient. The case is now almost surely to be reviewed by the Supreme Court, which typically prefers to have the final say when a government program or major executive action is invalidated by a lower court.
The Trump administration recently told the Ninth Circuit it needed a ruling by the end of October so it could get the case to the high court during its current term, which runs through next June. When the appeals court missed that deadline, the administration went ahead and filed a petition with the Supreme Court, which is currently pending.
DACA offered two-year renewable grants to participants, referred to by supporters as Dreamers, allowing them to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation.
Roughly 800,000 people have participated in the program, which has been available to students and graduates who were brought to the U.S. under the age of 16 and have lived in the U.S. since 2007, provided they hadn’t committed serious crimes.
The Obama administration implemented the program in 2012. When the Trump administration moved to rescind it, the Department of Homeland Security cited the opinion of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an ardent opponent of illegal immigration, who said the Obama White House had exceeded its powers when it created DACA.
DHS intended to wind down the program in March 2018, but lower courts put that effort on hold. A gridlocked Congress hasn’t tackled the issue.
While all three judges on the Ninth Circuit panel were appointed by Democratic presidents, DACA rulings haven’t split entirely along ideological lines.
Write to Brent Kendall at [email protected]
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