Biden slams ‘disappointing’ DACA decision, urges Congress to rescue program

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President Biden said Saturday that a federal judge’s revocation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Action program is “extremely disappointing” — calling on Democratic senators to use legislative sleight of hand to protect undocumented people brought to the United States as children.

“This decision … relegates hundreds of thousands of young immigrants to an uncertain future,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.

“The Ministry of Justice intends to appeal this decision,” he added.

A federal judge in Texas ruled Friday that President Obama illegally launched DACA in 2012 when he issued an executive order preventing the deportation of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States before they turned 18.

Judge Andrew Hanen of the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas found that Obama’s order violated the Administrative Procedures Act, which outlines how agencies develop and enforce regulations.

Activists associated with the United We Dream meet near the White House on June 15, 2021. Associated Press

“Although this program may have been popular, the correct starting point for the DACA program was and remains Congress,” Hanen wrote.

Biden, in his statement, acknowledged legal reasoning by calling on Congress to pass the program into law.

“Only Congress can secure a lasting solution by giving a path to citizenship to Dreamers,” Biden said. “I very much hope that Congress, through reconciliation or other means, will finally provide security for all dreamers, who have long lived in fear.”

DACA students gather in front of the Supreme Court in Washington on June 18, 2020

Top Democrats said Friday their only hope of getting a sweeping immigration reform package through a divided Congress would be to cram it into a budget-reconciliation bill, Politico reported.

This budget bill could pass a partisan vote without Republican support — but adding an immigration measure to the package may not be allowed under the Senate’s complex rules on reconciliation procedures.

Hanin on Friday ordered the Biden administration to stop accepting applications for the DACA program, which covers at least 616,000 people and allows them to work legally in the United States without fear of deportation.

But, the judge noted, existing DACA recipients will not be affected immediately.

“It does not require [the Department of Homeland Security] or the Department of Justice to take any immigration, deportation, or criminal action against any DACA recipient, applicant, or other person that it would not otherwise have taken.”

The ruling came as a result of a lawsuit brought by Texas and eight other Republican-run states that sued to stop DACA, arguing that Obama bypassed Congress to establish it.

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