A federal appeals court this week will hear arguments on the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides legal protection and work authorizations for hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth living in the United States.
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will hear the open arguments on Thursday from representatives of both the Biden administration and a group of Republican states. The hearing stems from a lawsuit filed in 2018 by Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia.
In the lawsuit, the Republican-controlled states argued that the Obama administration overstepped its authority when it created the DACA program. They also said it imposed undue costs on the states.
On the other hand, the Justice Department is expected to defend the program and argue that the president had the power to create DACA. The Justice Department is also expected to note that the executive branch of the government can exercise discretion on matters concerning immigration, as reported by the New York Times.
What Could the Results Be?
The Fifth Circuit covers Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. It is widely regarded as one of the most conservative federal appellate courts in the country.
In August 2023, the Fifth Circuit upheld a decision that limited access to mifepristone, a widely used abortion pill. The three judges on the panel ruled that the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) regulations on the drug were unlawful.
The judges were pertaining to the FDA's rule which allowed the intake of abortion pills within the first 70 days of pregnancy. The regulation also allowed mifepristone to be shipped via mail and prescribed by medical professionals who are not doctors.
The Supreme Court later reversed the Fifth Circuit's decision.
None of the judges at the hearing this week are among the six judges former President Donald Trump nominated to the Fifth Circuit. However, one of the judges, Judge Jerry E. Smith, wrote a majority opinion that blocked a program similar to DACA that was made for undocumented parents of immigrants.
What Is the DACA Program?
The Obama administration established DACA in June 2012 to provide legal protections for eligible young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children. These protections included giving them temporary relief from deportation and granting them work authorization that must be renewed every two years.
DACA does not provide recipients a pathway to permanent residency or citizenship. As of December 2022, there were an estimated 580,000 DACA recipients in the US.
