A federal court has ordered the Trump administration to begin accepting new applications to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children from deportation.
As NPR reported earlier this week, the Trump administration has not been accepting new applicants even after the Supreme Court ruled last month that the administration didn’t go about ending the program correctly. The administration has only been processing DACA renewals.
“This means that the administration not only must continue protections for current recipients but that it must also accept new applications,” saidāÆAli Noorani, president, and CEO of the National Immigration Forum. “Ignoring this decision puts the administration directly at odds with the rule of law and leaves DREAMers steeped in even more uncertainty about their futures.”
The U.S. District Court in Maryland ruled on Friday that the DACA policy must be restored to what it was before the Trump administration rescinded it in September 2017.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who led the multistate coalition suing to restore DACA, said: “From the Supreme Court down, the courts have made it clear: DACA stands, and now its doors are open to new DREAMers to apply. That’s a fact and that’s what matters. I urge all DREAMers to enter DACA.”
