The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in late June in the case of DHS v. Regents of the University of California that the Trump Administration’s attempted rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was improper because the administration did not provide adequate justification for terminating the program. DACA was established by executive action during the Obama Administration to permit eligible beneficiaries, i.e., certain aliens who entered the country unlawfully as young children (typically brought here by their parents), to obtain employment authorization documents that allow them to lawfully work and avoid deportation for a renewable two-year period.
In its recent ruling, the Supreme Court also made clear, however, that the administration was not precluded from rescinding DACA in the future based on separate legitimate reasoning and through proper procedures. That said, many commentators believed that unless and until that happened, the ruling required the Trump Administration to fully restore the DACA program as originally implemented by the Obama Administration.
Nevertheless, on July 28, 2020, Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Chad Wolf issued a Memorandum announcing that in response to the Supreme Court’s recent decision, DHS will not accept any new or act on pending DACA applications and will limit all DACA renewals to one year rather than two years while it considers whether to rescind the DACA program. In addition, DHS will reject any new and pending requests from DACA beneficiaries to travel internationally, absent exceptional circumstances.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.