New Orleans.- Some immigrants who grew up in the United States after being brought illegally as children were among nearly 200 protesters who gathered today outside a federal courthouse in New Orleans, where three appeals judges heard arguments on the Biden administration’s policy that protects them from deportation.
In the long legal battle being fought in the Federal Court of Appeals of the 5th Circuit, the future of some 535 thousand people who have been living in the United States for a long time, although they do not have US nationality or legal residence, and live with the possibility of being deported.
“I live here. I work here. I have a house here,” said María Rocha Carrillo, 37 years old. He traveled from his home in New York to join the protest and was in the front row of a packed courtroom as the hearing began. She commented that she was brought to the United States at the age of 3, when her family migrated from Mexico, where she was born. She was unable to obtain a teaching certificate until the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program allowed her to pursue a career in education.
There were no opponents of DACA among the protesters. But opponents, primarily Texas and eight other Republican-governed states, have said in court arguments and legal writings that they incur hundreds of millions of dollars in health care, education and other costs when immigrants are allowed to remain in the country. country illegally.
As the hour-long hearing began, Brian Boynton, arguing for the Biden administration, said states have no right to sue because they have not proven any harm caused by DACA. He said his argument is bolstered by Supreme Court decisions since the 5th Circuit Court heard and rejected that argument in 2022.
Judge Jerry Smith counterattacked. “I don’t understand how you get anywhere with that argument,” Smith said, asserting that Supreme Court precedents do not contain unambiguous language requiring the appeals court to retract its earlier ruling.
Judge Stephen Higginson seemed more willing to consider the argument.
“Does a drastic or radical change in analysis allow us to follow the Supreme Court instead of the erroneous 5th Circuit law?” Stephenson asked.
“That’s right,” Boynton responded.
The judges on the panel gave no indication of when or how they will issue a ruling. The case is almost certain to end up in the Supreme Court.
Then-President Barack Obama launched the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, citing congressional inaction on legislation aimed at giving those brought to the United States as children a path for the regularization of their immigration status and naturalization. Years of litigation followed. President Joe Biden renewed the program in hopes of winning court approval.
But in September 2023, federal Judge Andrew Hanen in Houston declared that the executive branch had overstepped its authority in creating the program. Hanen prohibited the government from approving new applications, but left the program intact for existing beneficiaries, known as “dreamers,” during appeals. Boynton asked the 5th Circuit Court judges to maintain that policy while appeals continue if they rule against DACA.
Advocates of the policy argue that Congress has given the Department of Homeland Security — which falls under the executive branch — the authority to set immigration policy, and that states challenging the program have no basis to sue.
“They cannot identify any harm from DACA,” Nina Perales, vice president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), said at a press conference this week.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office did not respond to an email interview request. The other states challenging DACA are Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas and Mississippi.
Among those states’ allies in judicial briefs is the Immigration Reform Law Institute. “Congress has repeatedly refused to legalize DACA recipients, and no government can take that step in their place,” the group’s executive director, Dale L. Wilcox, said in a statement released this year.
The panel handling the case is made up of Judges Jerry Smith, nominated to the 5th Circuit by former President Ronald Reagan; Edith Brown Clement, nominated by former President George W. Bush; and Stephen Higginson, nominated by Obama.
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