A federal judge in Texas has ruled an Obama-era immigration policy unconstitutional, setting up the potential for hundreds of thousands of deportations to begin.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled that DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, policy violated the U.S. Constitution, which requires Congress to manage immigration affairs, not the White House. Former President Barack Obama infamously declared that the children of illegal immigrants, referred to as Dreamers, would be protected from deportation through an executive order.
While Judge Hanen did not call for an immediate end to the program while it works its way through the appeals process, he barred the Biden administration from processing any new applications.
“While sympathetic to the predicament of DACA recipients and their families, this Court has expressed its concerns about the legality of the program for some time,” Hanen wrote in his 40-page ruling. “The solution for these deficiencies lies with the legislature, not the executive or judicial branches. Congress, for any number of reasons, has decided not to pass DACA-like legislation … The Executive Branch cannot usurp the power bestowed on Congress by the Constitution — even to fill a void.”
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