Fifth Circuit Sets Promising Precedent for Pending Ruling on Immigration Executive Action
The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) welcomes this week’s ruling from a federal appeals court in Texas, which reiterated that the Department of Homeland Security has broad discretion in how it enforces federal immigration law. The decision reinforces the sound legal foundation of the Obama administration’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruling in Crane v. Johnson is a significant victory for immigrant families and sets a positive precedent as communities await the Fifth Circuit’s ruling on a similar case brought by 26 states challenging President Obama’s November 2014 immigration executive actions, which expanded DACA and created Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA). Deferred action allows certain immigrants to apply for temporary protection from the fear of deportation. While immigrants who meet the 2012 DACA requirements may still apply for relief, those who would qualify under the DACA expansion and DAPA program remain in limbo after a federal court injunction resulting from the lawsuit put those programs on hold.
“The Fifth Circuit’s decision in Crane is an important victory and offers hope that the court will conclude that DAPA and the expansion of DACA should move forward and allow the community to avail itself of protection from deportation,” said NIJC Executive Director Mary Meg McCarthy.
NIJC joined other immigrant rights organizations to submit an amicus brief in Crane, explaining that the arguments advanced by the Border Patrol agents were inconsistent with various parts of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and that the officers were barred by longstanding precedent from challenging the administration’s ability to use its discretion to grant deferred action.