Immigration policies have been created by the federal government since the 18th century. Before the 19th century, immigration to the US was fairly unregulated. However, the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act provided a path to permanent residency for undocumented immigrants. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was announced by then-President Barack Obama on June 15, 2012. This policy meant that children who were brought to the United States undocument receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation. This should not be confused with the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM), which is a legislative proposal that would provide temporary conditional residency, the right to work and a pathway to permanent residency to undocumented immigrants who entered the US as minors.
The first legal battle for DACA came in 2014 when President Obama wanted to expand the policy to other undocumented immigrants. Multiple states sued against the expansion and expansion was blocked in June 2016 in the case of United States vs Texas.
Under the Trump administration, several changes were made to immigration policies that included, but are not limited to, temporary and permanent work permits and visas. The rejection rate for visa categories across the board increased by nearly 20% and refugees and asylum seekers were being denied according to Forbes. The most infamous of Trump’s immigration policies being “The Wall” he began building along the southern border befor President Joe Biden halted construction. The Trump administration announced in 2017 that they planned to phase out DACA. This resulted in several lawsuits, lapsed timelines and eventually a deterrence of phasing out DACA and DREAM policies. Andrew Hanen, a Texan judge in 2018 and the recent ruling, ruled that DACA is unlawful. Following this ruling, however, litigation allowed the Department of Homeland Security to accept new DACA applicants and renew others.
On January 20, 2021 President Joe Biden followed through on one of his campaign promises of more liberal immigration policies and issued an executive order to reinstate DACA.. Almost 6 months later, Hanen ruled that DACA was created in violation of the law and was implemented unlawfully. This ruling prevented new applications but allowed the renewal of current applicants. The case has been going back and forth since then between the Texas courts and the appellate court.
The Biden administration in Oct. 2022 attempted to codify DACA, hoping for an approval from Hanen with regulatory amendments. However, on Sept. 13, 2023, Hanen once again ruled that DACA is unlawful. The case will now be appealed to the Fifth Circuit, and may eventually end up at the Supreme Court. This ruling still allows for current DACA recipients to renew but first time applications will not be processed.
(This timeline and the information in this article was largely adapted from the Informed Immigrant column.)
By Khadejra Golding-Litchmore, Reporter
Graphic by Shae-Lynn Henderson, EIC