Federal Court Blocks Trump Administration’s Latest Attack on DACA
In a victory for Dreamers, their families, and hundreds of thousands of undocumented youths across the U.S., a federal court on November 14 struck down the Trump Administration’s latest attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis granted plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment against the DACA suspension on the grounds that Chad Wolf, whose July 28, 2020 memorandum (Wolf Memorandum) attempted to end the program, was not legally serving as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security when he issued it. All of Defendant’s cross-motions were denied at the same time.
“DHS failed to follow the order of succession as it was lawfully designated,” wrote Garaufis. “Therefore, the actions taken by purported Acting Secretaries, who were not properly in their roles according to the lawful order of succession, were taken without legal authority.”
Garaufis’ decision rebuked DHS’s attempted revisions to its own order of succession policy. In April 2019 then-Acting DHS Secretary Keith McAleenan directed his General Counsel to revise the agency succession order to move the Undersecretary for Strategy, Policy and Plans, from 11th in line to 5th. Garaufis concluded that McAleenan improperly “leapfrogged the FEMA Administrator, the CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) Director and five others, in the order of succession.” McAleenan himself resigned five days later and Wolf, who was then fourth in line, assumed the role of Acting Secretary because the three offices ahead of him were vacant.
Judge Garaufis stated, “based on the plain text of the operative order of succession, neither Mr. McAleenan nor, in turn, Mr. Wolf possessed statutory authority to serve as Acting Secretary. Therefore, the Wolf Memorandum was not an exercise of legal authority.”
Garaufis also cited the Government Accountability Office, which wrote in a report to Congress in August that Wolf was the beneficiary of an "invalid order of succession." Because the entire Wolf Memorandum was issued without legal authority, Garaufis also nullified its instructions (1) to reject all pending and future initial requests for DACA, (2) reject all pending and future applications by DACA members to be able to leave and re-enter the United States absent special circumstances, and (3) to require all DACA recipients to renew their status annually, rather than every two years.
Lead plaintiff Martin Jonathan Batalla Vidal and five other plaintiffs are currently protected by DACA, a 2012 Act which Justice Roberts explained “allows certain unauthorized aliens who arrived in the United States as children to apply for a two-year forbearance of removal. Those granted such relief become eligible for work authorization and various federal benefits.” Department of Homeland Security et al v. Regents of the University of California et al.
In interviews related to earlier DACA cases, Batalla Vidal, a college student, told VOX news, “ For the past seven years, , who came to the United States as children, have been able to work at the jobs of their choosing, graduate from schools around the country, contribute billions of dollars to the economy, and support their families and communities — all because of DACA… “
Garaufis also granted the plaintiff’s request to be certified to maintain a class action suit in federal court, holding that it met all criteria outlined in Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. He held the class had (1) numerosity, because it is “so numerous that joinder of all members is impractical, (2) commonality due to common questions of law or fact, (3) typicality since all plaintiffs shared the same essential characteristics, and (4) adequacy of representation since the plaintiffs possessed the same interests and suffered the same injuries as other class members.
This nullification of the Wolf Memorandum arose directly out of the years-long battle over DACA. Previously, in 2014, 26 states, led by the State of Texas, challenged Obama-era immigration reforms, including DACA. In 2015, a federal district court in Texas issued injunctions that prevented the government from enforcing these programs. The Fifth Circuit upheld the decision. Their decision was left undisturbed by a 4-4 split vote of the U.S. Supreme Court, (one seat was vacant at the time of the decision due to the death of Justice Antonin Scalia). However, due to the even split, no majority opinion was issued and the decision was not binding precedent. Nonetheless, based on these decisions the then-Secretary of DHS terminated DACA.
In response to this termination, different plaintiffs in California, the District of Columbia, and New York filed suit challenging the DACA termination. Batalla Vidal was the plaintiff in the New York case which had been previously heard by Judge Garaufis. These cases were appealed to the Supreme Court and ultimately consolidated. On June 18, 2020, in Department of Homeland Security et al v. Regents of the University of California et al., the Supreme Court disallowed the termination of the DACA program on the grounds that the agency failed to follow the proper procedures in its termination decision under the Administrative Procedure Act and that the termination decision was arbitrary and capricious. All three cases were sent back to their original courts for further action consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision. This decision represented a serious defeat for the Trump Administration’s efforts to end DACA.
One month later, on July 28, 2020, Chad Wolf, under his alleged authority as Acting Secretary of DHS, issued the Wolf Memorandum “suspending” DACA while allegedly reviewing the program following the Supreme Court’s decision a month earlier. Because Batalla Vidal’s case had been sent back to Garaufis by the Supreme Court, Batalla Vidal moved Garaufis for leave to challenge the validity of the Wolf Memorandum and to certify his case as a class action. He did so and Garaufis ruled in his favor.
Many hoped the Supreme Court’s ruling in June would restore DACA. Instead, the Wolf Memorandum became the latest stalling tactic. Even though unsuccessful, the road to immigration reform could still be a rocky one. Javier. H. Valdés, co-executive director of Make the Road New York, organizational plaintiff in the last week’s case said, “As we look forward to a Biden administration, we know this victory is just the beginning. Not only must the new administration immediately protect DACA and TPS holders and reverse all of Trump’s nativist policies, but also provide swift relief and a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented families across this country.”
