On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in New York temporarily sidetracked efforts to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) when he ruled that Attorney General Jeff Sessions \u201cerred in concluding that DACA is unconstitutional\u201d and ordered the Trump administration to resume accepting renewal applications from DACA beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
While the decision was hailed by proponents of amnesty for the nearly 2 million individuals participating in or eligible for DACA, it should not be seen as a victory for them or, more importantly, for the rule of law.<\/p>\n
In his 55-page decision<\/a>, Garaufis conceded the administration\u2019s authority, saying they \u201cindisputably can end the DACA program.\u201d<\/p>\n He further admitted that \u201cnothing in the Constitution or in the Immigration and Nationality Act” requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) \u201cgrant deferred action or work authorization to individuals without lawful immigration status.\u201d<\/p>\n The decision also does not require the government to grant any particular DACA application, nor does it prevent revoking individual recipients’ deferred action or work authorization.<\/p>\n The issue before the court was whether the administration lawyers \u201coffered legally adequate reasons for doing so,\u201d he maintained.<\/p>\n The ruling may have confused some, but it should not have surprised anyone considering Judge Garaufis\u2019 has been tipping his hand since last fall.<\/p>\n During a September hearing related to a lawsuit brought by a Queens DACA recipient, Judge Garaufis urged administration lawyers to delay<\/a> the program\u2019s re-enrollment deadline, saying \u201cyou can always deport them later.\u201d<\/p>\n When lawyers stood firm on the deadline a few weeks later in his courtroom, he professed his personal outrage<\/a> from the bench.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s unacceptable to me, quite frankly, as a human being and as an American. I’m just glad I was born in Patterson, New Jersey, and not Mexico City,\u201d Garaufis said, before characterizing as \u201cheartless\u201d the administration\u2019s position.<\/p>\n Appointed by President Clinton, Garaufis more than exposed<\/a> his own bias by contending no one would be hurt by a DACA delay, especially those \u201cwho are sweating about whether someone is going to come knocking on their door and send them back to a country that they don\u2019t even know and where they don\u2019t speak the language.\u201d<\/p>\n In oral arguments made in January<\/a>,\u00a0Garaufis again confused his judge\u2019s bench with the pulpit when he preached against what he termed the President\u2019s \u201crecurring, redundant drumbeat of anti-Latino commentary.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just an ad hoc comment that was overheard on an open mic,\u201d the judge said, according to CNN<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s not just that somebody at [Immigration and Naturalization Service] INS said something derogatory about Mexicans. This came from the top.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe Judge Garaufis should spend less time lecturing and more time studying immigration law, then he would know that in 2003 the INS was abolished and its functions dispersed across agencies within the newly created DHS.