Second federal judge blocks plan to end DACA program

Feb. 13 (UPI) — A federal district judge in New York on Tuesday became the second to block President Donald Trump’s effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled the Trump administration has not offered legally adequate reasons to end the program which protects hundreds of thousands of children of undocumented immigrants from deportation.

“First, the decision to end the DACA program appears to rest exclusively on a legal conclusion that the program was unconstitutional and violated the APA and INA,” Garaufis wrote. “Because that conclusion was erroneous, the decision to end the DACA program cannot stand.”

Garaufis’ ruling comes after California U.S. District Judge William Alsup blocked the plan to let DACA expire in January, saying the reasoning to end the program was based on a misinterpretation of the law.

Both rulings ordered the government to keep processing DACA renewal requests.

Garaufis noted his ruling doesn’t mean that any DACA applicant must be automatically granted an extension and doesn’t prohibit the United States from revoking the deferred deportation status of individual DACA recipients.