The Supreme Court’s decision not to quickly review a lower court ruling that prevents the Trump administration from rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program effectively allows the more than 535,000 recipients whose legal protections would expire after March 5 to apply for renewal under the program.
Before the lower court ruling, the Trump administration was looking to end the program by next week, and have it be replaced by a new legislative program to help the so-called Dreamers.
But with the Supreme Court’s decision not to quickly review the case, the lower court injunction against Trump’s move to end DACA remains in place. That means an estimated 689,900 illegal immigrants whose protections were slated to end between September 2017 and September 2019 will continue to be able to submit renewal applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services requesting work authorizations and legal protections.
Before March 5, 154,230 DACA recipients were eligible to renew, and all but 21,790 did. More than 535,000 DACA recipients are now expected to have the same ability to renew while the case continues in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California, and the Eastern District of New York, where separate lawsuits were filed.
When the San Francisco judge issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against President Trump’s plan to end DACA, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it would comply, but would not be accepting new applications.
“Due to federal court orders, USCIS has resumed accepting requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA. USCIS is not accepting requests from individuals who have never before been granted deferred action under DACA. Until further notice, and unless otherwise provided in this guidance, the DACA policy will be operated on the terms in place before it was rescinded on Sept. 5, 2017,” USCIS said in a statement issued Feb. 14.
