Victory for DREAMers, federal court asks the US government to restore DACA program

A lawsuit was brought by Princeton University, one of its undergraduate students and Microsoft in November 2017 challenging the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Microsoft and others argued in court that terminating the program will severel harms the student and other Dreamers and the employers and educational institutions that rely on and benefit from their contributions.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled yesterday that the federal government’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was unlawful and he ordered the government to restore the DACA program.

As a result, the government should accept new DACA applications and issue renewals unless the Department of Homeland Security can provide a valid rationale for ending the program or win an appeal of the court’s ruling within 90 days.

Microsoft President Brad Smith made the following statement regarding the ruling:

“DREAMers grew up in this country, attended our schools, pay taxes and contribute to our communities. We hope this decision will help provide new incentive for the legislative solution the country and these individuals so clearly deserve. As the business community has come to appreciate, a lasting solution for the country’s DREAMers is both an economic imperative and a humanitarian necessity.”

“We are delighted that the court agreed with us that the government’s termination of the DACA program ‘was unlawful and must be set aside,’” Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber said Tuesday evening. “As the court noted, ‘neither the meager legal reasoning nor the assessment of litigation risk provided by [the Department of Homeland Security]’ is enough to support the government’s decision to end the program.

You can learn more about DACA program here.