Biden Administration Pushes To Formalize DACA—Here’s Why

Breaking Business Biden Administration Pushes To Formalize DACA—Here’s Why Joe Walsh Forbes Staff I cover breaking news for Forbes. New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Aug 24, 2022, 07:18pm EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Topline The Biden Administration on Wednesday moved to turn the decade-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program into a federal rule, aiming to shield DACA—which has protected from deportation hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.

S. as children—from legal challenges that have threatened to derail the program. Immigration rights activists take part in a rally in front of the Supreme Court on November 12, .

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AFP via Getty Images Key Facts The Department of Homeland Security released a draft of its DACA rule Wednesday, after a two-month public comment period last fall, setting the stage for DACA to become an official federal rule at the end of October . The proposed rule doesn’t change how DACA works or who is eligible, but it would supersede the 2012 memorandum by then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano that initially created the DACA program. DHS says the goal of replacing the 2012 memo with a formal rule is to “preserve and fortify” DACA, which has been the subject of lawsuits from Republican-led states for years.

One such legal challenge from Texas caused federal Judge Andrew Hanen to stop letting new people enroll in DACA last year, a decision rooted partly in Hanen’s belief that DHS didn’t follow the standard legal process for issuing federal rules—which includes seeking public comment—when it created DACA via a memo a decade ago. President Joe Biden responded to Hanen’s decision at the time by pledging to “issue a proposed rule concerning DACA in the near future. ” Big Number 611,270.

That’s how many people were enrolled in DACA as of March, according to data from U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Key Background DACA gives temporary deportation relief and work authorization to people who were brought to the United States illegally before they turned 16, as long as recipients graduate from high school and avoid felony convictions. The program is broadly popular but politically contentious, and its legal status has often been precarious because it’s an executive action —framed by DHS as a way of prioritizing its limited immigration enforcement resources—rather than a federal law. The Trump Administration tried to shut down DACA , but in 2020, the Supreme Court said the White House failed to follow the proper procedures for rescinding it.

Plus, the program has faced years of lawsuits, and Hanen’s decision last year cut off new applicants from entering the program, though the Biden Administration is appealing. Tangent On Wednesday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called on Congress to codify into federal law protections for DACA recipients, arguing that step “provides an enduring solution for the young Dreamers who have known no country other than the United States as their own. ” Congressional Democrats and some Republicans have pushed to offer formal legal protections and a pathway to citizenship for those enrolled in DACA, but efforts have stalled.

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