California is planning to bring a new challenge to the recent changes the Trump administration made to the Obama-era program that shields certain undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children from deportation.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced in a court filing Tuesday that the state and others “expect to bring challenges” to a new policy for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that limits renewals to one year instead of two and prohibits new DACA applications.
The Supreme Court in June blocked the Trump administration’s previous attempt to end the DACA program.
At the end of last month, acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf issued the new rules, saying they were needed as the administration studies the DACA program as a whole. Though Wolf stopped short of ending the program altogether, he appeared to be laying the groundwork for further restrictions or termination.
“I have concluded that the DACA policy, at a minimum, presents serious policy concerns that may warrant its full rescission,” Wolf wrote.
Earlier in July, a federal judge in Maryland said that the administration must begin to accept new applications for DACA.
In his order, Judge Paul Grimm of the US District Court for the District of Maryland said that the program is to be restored to its “pre-September 5, 2017 status,” meaning the status quo before President Donald Trump tried to terminate it, thereby giving hundreds of thousands of DACA-eligible immigrants the opportunity to apply.
Instead, the administration issued a new memo limiting eligibility to the program, while it determines next steps.
“Rather than accept the outcome of the litigation,” wrote Becerra on Tuesday, “Wolf issued a memorandum … directing DHS to make immediate interim changes to DACA while he ostensibly evaluates the future of the program.”
DACA, which was established in 2012, protects undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children from deportation and allows them to work in the US.
“We took the Trump Administration to court to defend the DACA Dreamers and the Rule of Law. And we won. We’re prepared to do it again,” said Becerra in a statement to CNN.
