U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Saturday that it has begun allowing young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children to renew protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The move comes after U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued a preliminary injunction this week blocking President Trump’s decision to end the Obama-era program, which granted temporary reprieve from deportation to hundreds of thousands of such immigrants, often called “Dreamers.”
“Due to a federal court order, USCIS has resumed accepting requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA,” USCIS said in an update posted online Saturday.
{mosads}
“Until further notice, and unless otherwise provided in this guidance, the DACA policy will be operated on the terms in place before it was rescinded on Sept. 5, 2017,” the update said.
In his order on Tuesday, Alsup said that the Trump administration’s move to rescind DACA was done without following the proper legal procedures, and that the federal government would have to “maintain the DACA program on a nationwide basis” while legal challenges play out in court.
Trump called the order “unfair,” and suggested that it would be reversed by a higher court.
“It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts,” Trump tweeted after the order came out.
Alsup’s order came in response to a lawsuit filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) and other state attorneys general. Becerra took to Twitter Saturday night after USCIS issued its update to encourage those eligible to reapply for DACA’s protections.
Trump rescinded the program in September, arguing that former President Obama exceeded his constitutional authority in creating the program in the first place. But Trump also urged lawmakers to act swiftly to codify DACA’s protections into law.
But members of Congress have struggled to agree on a permanent legal solution for DACA recipients. Trump has insisted that any bill addressing the program must also include funding for border security and construction of his long-promised wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
— Updated at 11:44 p.m.