Fifth Circuit – DAPA, DACA

Fifth Circuit Blocks Request to Stay DAPA and Expanded DACA

 

This was expected, but that does not mean it does not hurt for millions of hopeful immigrants.

The Fifth Circuit for the US Court of Appeals issued a decision yesterday, blocking the emergency request for a stay that the Department of Justice requested. The Department of Justice requested that the court allow the DAPA and expanded DACA programs to go into effect. A federal judge in Texas blocked from going into effect. These were heavily publicized executive action orders from November that had years of anticipation. After Congress did not pass comprehensive immigration reform, President Obama took it within his executive authority to pass limited relief for certain individuals without status. The court’s decision was 2-1, with the one dissenting judge finding this case to be outside the judicial purview. The Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments on April 17 and this decision was expected.

This was only the decision on whether the stay of the federal judge’s preliminary injunction should be granted. This means that the programs will continue to be unavailable. The Fifth Circuit will hear the appeal of the preliminary injunction in July.

Expanded DACA is intended to be an improvement of the existing DACA program, which is still in effect. DAPA is supposed to provide protections to parents of US citizens and permanent residents, much in line with the US’s underlining goal of immigration policy – family togetherness. Somewhere between 4 -5 million individuals would benefit from these programs, which would allow for work authorization and authorized stay. The eligible individuals need to be low removal priorities, meaning they have a clean criminal record or close to clean record. These people continue to wait in limbo, as we wait for oral arguments in July and a subsequent decision.

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