Over the weekend, a federal judge ruled Chad Wolf’s suspension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was not valid.
The decision comes as a result of Wolf not serving lawfully as acting secretary of Homeland Security. Judge Nicholas Garaufis explained in his ruling that the DHS did not follow the lawfully designated order of succession, voiding Wolf’s power.
🎉 VICTORY! A Brooklyn court ruled in our case with @MaketheRoadNY and @WIRACYls on DACA that Chad Wolf was not lawfully serving, and his memo was not lawfully issued. We are still reading the opinion and will provide more details soon.
— National Immigration Law Center (@NILC) November 14, 2020
The attempt to restrict DACA started with a June Supreme Court ruling that upheld the program. In response, Wolf announced in July that DHS would immediately reject all initial DACA requests and limit the period of renewed deferred action, among other changes.
“There are important policy reasons that may warrant the full rescission of the DACA policy,” Wolf said in the memo.
Garaufis’ decision continues the protection of nearly 649,000 immigrants brought to the United States as children. With approximately two months left in office, the ruling stalls major action by President Donald Trump and his administration to jeopardize DACA and its recipients. According to NPR, President-elect Joe Biden plans to make DACA permanent on his first day in office. He also vowed to stop the separation of immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Home is here and DACA is here to stay.
— ACLU (@ACLU) November 15, 2020
In a footnote, Garaufis said, “The court wishes the Government well in trying to find its way out of this self-made thicket.”
