On Thursday, a US judge said that he wanted to see quick decisions on lawsuits challenging the decision by the Trump administration to close down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which offers protection from deportation for young undocumented immigrants who were still underage when they arrived in the US.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced that the program, which began via executive action by then President Barack Obama in late 2012, would be rescinded in March 2018, putting the future of almost 800,000 young immigrants in doubt. Several individuals, organizations, and states have filed lawsuits to protect those in receipt of the program, who are known as Dreamers.
Four such cases were grouped together by US District Judge, William Alsup, at a federal court hearing in San Francisco, including the lawsuit filed by six individual DACA recipients and the attorney general of California. Alsup says legal briefs for many of the issues could be concluded by the end of the year, noting that he dislikes the idea of wasting time on individual lawsuits while the clock is running out on the expiry date for the program.
Alsup notes that all the lawsuits essentially claim the same thing – that proper administrative procedure was not followed by the Trump administration on the rescinding of the deferred action program, and that due process has been violated by making promises that were later revoked.