Dreamers win a temporary reprieve

A district judge in California temporarily blocked the Trump administration's efforts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ('DACA') programme late today. The ruling came in a challenge to the Department of Homeland Security brought by the University of California and others. The Trump administration announced the move to draw down the program last September with a planned end for early March. DACA protects young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children from deportation. 

In the somewhat limited 49-page ruling, Judge William Alsup stated that the administration must resume receiving DACA renewal applications but the administration did not need to process applications for those persons who had never before received DACA protections. The judge noted that the "plaintiffs have shown that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the rescission was arbitrary and capricious" and ordered that the policy decision should be set aside under the federal Administrative Procedures Act. In granting a nationwide injunction, the judge said such an order was "appropriate" because "our country has a strong interest in the uniform application of immigration law and policy." 

A spokesman for the White House called the decision "outrageous" while the Department of Justice questioned the legality of DACA, calling it "an unlawful circumvention of Congress".