Donald Trump
Donald Trump Photo: Getty Images

Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn blocked President Donald Trump's decision to cancel the DACA program, created by President Barack Obama with the purpose to protect eligible immigrant youth who came to the United States when they were children from deportation.

Garaufis said that the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals cannot end in March as scheduled, maintaining the restoration of the program as it was. In the document, the judge states that "the irreparable damages identified by the plaintiffs are a result, to a large extent, of the failure (of the Department of Homeland Security -DHS-) to renew existing deferred action permits and especially work permits, and not his refusal to accept new initial requests for DACA," the judge explained.

The court document explains declaring DACA unconstitutional is a "wrong conclusion" and considered the decision to eliminate the program as "arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion," for that reason it must be maintained. "The court does not see how an executive order taken 'in accordance with an express or implicit authorization from Congress' or 'in the absence of a congressional decision or denial of authority,' becomes unconstitutional simply because Congress has considered and not has enacted legislation that achieves similar goals," the document highlights. "DACA is not unconstitutional simply because it was implemented by unilateral and executive action, without authorization from Congress," the court said.

In January, President Donald Trump said during a White House briefing there was a possibility to allow the legalization of thousands of "Dreamers." "We’re going to morph into it," Trump said of citizenship. "It’s going to happen — over a period of 10 to 12 years. If somebody's done a great job and worked hard, it keeps the incentive to do a great job. ... I think it's a nice thing to have the incentive, after a period of years, of being able to become a citizen."

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the new White House immigration deal for some "Dreamers" actually "represents a compromise that members of both parties can support. We encourage the Senate to bring it to the floor."

According to official information, Trump would allow an estimated 1.8 million undocumented immigrant and DACA recipients to have access to citizenship, in exchange for the approval of 25,000 million dollars in a fiduciary fund for the border wall, as well as additional resources to hire personnel for the Department of Homeland Security. Trump proposes that the 50,000 green cards that are delivered each year remain in the past, and on requests for residence for family members, it states that they are limited to husbands and unmarried children under 21 years of age.

In September 2017, Trump gave a deadline to the Congress to address the situation and come up with an alternative. “Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can't, I will revisit this issue!” he tweeted.

"Negotiations on DACA have begun. Republicans want to make a deal and Democrats say they want to make a deal. Wouldn’t it be great if we could finally, after so many years, solve the DACA puzzle," tweeted Trump in February 13, 2018, before knowing the judge was going to block his plan. "This will be our last chance, there will never be another opportunity! March 5th."

Since the very first day, politicians have been divided on immigration issues related to this American immigration policy, but under the presidency of Donald Trump, DACA has been under scrutiny. The program not only gives young undocumented immigrants protection from deportation, also a work permit is part of the program that expires after two years, and is subject to renewal.

The end of DACA means that 800,000 children and youths will no longer be protected.

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