U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis of New York has become the second federal judge to place an injunction the Trump administration’s ending of the DACA program, the program that protects from deportation undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country at a young age. Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court in San Francisco placed a nationwide injunction on the ending of the program in January.
Garaufis wrote that the Trump administration could not end DACA until a “decision on the merits” in the lawsuits over DACA currently making their way through the courts, is made.
“Defendants thus must continue processing both initial DACA applications and DACA renewal requests under the same terms and conditions that applied before September 5, 2017, subject to the limitations described below,” he wrote.
The Trump administration had previously said it would stop accepting new applications after March 5, 2018. Shortly after the San Francisco decision, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to take the case up. The High Court hasn’t yet decided whether to hear the case.
The federal government shut down for three days last month over the program, although congressional members on both sides of the aisle, as well as the White House, have indicated a desire to find a permanent solution. A congressional recess next week followed closely by the March 5 deadline have a created a sense of urgency over finding a legislative solution this week.