A big week for that terrible court.
On Thursday the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in a case to determine the future of “Dreamers” who came to the country as children, including an estimated 27,000 Houstonians.
The hearing is the latest step in a six-year legal saga challenging the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Texas and eight other states sued the federal government in 2018 to end DACA based on the alleged financial burden to the state.
DACA recipients and immigrant advocate groups gathered outside the New Orleans courthouse Thursday to follow the legal battle that could strip 528,000 people of their work permit and protections from deportation. With the fourth-largest DACA population in the country according to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Houston is one of the cities most impacted.
Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and the State of New Jersey defended the program against the State of Texas. Judges heard arguments about the legal standing of Texas to challenge a federal policy, validity of arguments of financial harm, and the possibility of striking down some but not all parts of the program.
Lawyers for the Department of Justice questioned Texas’ standing to challenge a federal policy, arguing that past precedent has limited states’ ability to do so. New Jersey cited the positive impact of DACA on its state and challenged Texas’ ability to determine whether a nationwide program should continue.
MALDEF questioned Texas’ statistics on education and health care expenditures to prove financial burden. DACA recipients have aged out of the K-12 education system. Work permits increase their access to health insurance, a lawyer said.
The State of Texas maintained its legal standing to challenge the program, citing its successful case against the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program.
Judges Jerry E. Smith, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, Edith Brown Clement, appointed by former president George W. Bush, and Stephen A. Higginson, appointed by former President Barack Obama, presided over the hearing.
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Despite the legal challenge, DACA is one of the immigration programs that maintains strong public support. More than 80 percent of people believe that immigrants brought to the U.S. as children should have a pathway to citizenship, even as overall support for immigration is declining, according to a June 2024 Gallup poll.
The awful district court ruling that put DACA in jeopardy was issued in July 2021, so this has been a long time coming. I don’t know what will happen here except to say that the eventual ruling will be appealed to SCOTUS. I’d support that bipartisan immigration bill from this session that was otherwise all stick and no carrot if it included a provision to enshrine DACA. Maybe under a President Harris that could happen. In the meantime, we wait once again on the Fifth Circuit. Law Dork, Texas Public Radio, and the Associated Press have more.
People who are here legally don’t want more competition for their jobs. People who are here illegally do not want more competition for their jobs.
The crab mentality, if they want things to change, they need to go and support Democrats who at least may give them a chance to be here legally.
Obama did not keep his promise to them and Bernie chose not to support them, why trust the Democratic Party.
But as I recently told a first-generation Latino who plans to vote for Trump, neither you nor your parents were here in the 50s, so you have no idea where Trump wants to take you.