The Federal Court of Appeal turns Trump into another setback for DACA: NPR

Beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for the Arrival of Children and Other Young Immigrants gather at the US Capitol in Washington in March. A federal court of appeal has blocked the Trump administration's efforts to terminate the program.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

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J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for the Arrival of Children and Other Young Immigrants gather at the US Capitol in Washington in March. A federal court of appeal has blocked the Trump administration's efforts to terminate the program.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

A federal appeals court in California prevented the Trump government from immediately ending an Obama era program protecting young immigrants illegally brought into the United States as children from deportation.

A group of three judges of the Court of Appeal of the 9th American Circuit, based in San Francisco, unanimously ruled in favor of the preliminary injunction of a lower court against the attempt of the administration of gradually eliminate the delayed action in case of arrival in early childhood. The program allows approximately 700,000 immigrant youth to stay and work in the United States. In January, US District Judge William Alsup agreed to keep DACA operational while his future was pleaded.

The decision is the latest legal setback for the Trump administration on DACA.

Last year, President Trump announced his intention to end DACA in order to avoid a lawsuit in Texas and other states. But the president's action has brought immediate legal challenges.

In February, a federal judge in New York also prevented the administration from ending the DACA.

In April, a third federal judge, in Washington, DC, also spoke out against the administration.

In this latest decision, the first one rendered by an appeal board, the judges rejected the government's arguments that the court has no jurisdiction in the matter and asserted that the supporters of the DACA would probably get successful in asserting that the administration acted arbitrarily and capriciously. .

"Today, the Ninth Circuit has recognized that the brave men and women who have brought this case – as DACA holders across the country – embody the American dream," said Ethan Dettmer's lawyer Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, a firm representing some of DACA's plaintiffs. , in a report. "In upholding Alsup JA's preliminary injunction, the Court recognized that dreamers are" no different from other productive, even inspiring, young Americans ", and that the DACA was put in place to prevent" cruelty and the waste associated with the expulsion of productive young people to countries with which they have no connection. "

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this week and before the 9th Circuit ruled, the Justice Department asked the United States Supreme Court to intervene by reviewing the three decisions blocking the administration's plan to end the DACA.

The High Court has not responded to this request. But virtually all legal observers predict that the Supreme Court will ultimately decide the fate of the program.