The expected ruling on DACA from a Texas federal court was adjourned for several days after Judge Andrew Hanen ended the hearing without a decision on whether or not to maintain the program that benefits some 700,000 dreamers.
The hearing, which lasted about three hours, served for Judge Hanen to hear the arguments of both the plaintiff, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the program’s advocates, led by the Maldef organization.
The Maldef organization, which represents 22 DACA beneficiaries, will have to deliver a letter to Judge Hanen before next Monday in which it will express its point of view on the constitutionality of the program.
Andrew Hanen is the same as with a previous ruling ended with another program that benefited undocumented immigrants, promoted by then President Barack Obama, aimed at the parents of DACA beneficiaries.
The suspension of DACA ordered in September of last year by Trump had to take effect last March 5, although it never materialized because of the legal challenges faced by the president’s decision.
In fact, in January, another federal judge already ordered the partial reactivation of the DACA with the admission of renewal applications to those who had previously received the benefits of this program and who were running out of protection. That ruling, unlike that of Bates, has already been implemented.
The DACA plan was promulgated in 2012 by the then President Barack Obama to protect from deportation and grant temporary work and residence permits to some 690,000 young people, who came to the country without papers when they were minors and are known as Dreamers.
In its plans to combat immigration, the Trump government opted to repeal the program by considering it illegal, a decision that would have left those young people without their permits and at risk of deportation.
Trump’s decision has been challenged in different courts in the country, so it is possible that the case ends on the table of the Supreme Court in the coming months.