Federal judge orders Trump admin. to accept new DACA requests, but stays order for 90 days

A federal judge said the Trump administration's rescission of a program deferring the deportation of young immigrants was "arbitrary and capricious" because it "failed adequately to explain its conclusion that the program was unlawful."

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates on April 24 gave the administration 90 days to issue a new memo rescinding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (or DACA) that gives a "fuller explanation" on why the program lacks statutory and constitutional authority.

Without a new memo, the initial September directive rescinding DACA will be vacated, and the original program will be restored, Bates wrote. That means the administration would have to resume accepting and processing new applications for DACA, in addition to renewal requests.

Earlier this year, and in separate cases, federal judges in California and New York ordered the Trump administration to continue the program and accept renewal applications. The September memo said no new renewal applications would be accepted after Oct. 5, 2017. The administration in those previous cases had not been ordered to accept new applications.

"We believe the judge's ruling is extraordinarily broad and wrong on the law," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at an April 25 briefing.

The case before Bates, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, was brought by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Trustees of Princeton University.

Bates said the Trump administration had not cited any statutory provision with which DACA was in conflict.

The Justice Department said the ruling did not change its stance challenging DACA's constitutionality.

"DACA was implemented unilaterally after Congress declined to extend benefits to this same group of illegal aliens," said Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley.

O'Malley said DACA "was an unlawful circumvention of Congress" and susceptible to the same legal challenges that "effectively ended" another Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents.

Pending a new memo and the judge's evaluation of its merits, we continue to rate this promise as In the Works.