Judge rules DACA program should restart, blocks Trump Administration plan for elimination

Christal Hayes | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Killing DACA: Why Trump's decision matters to 'Dreamers' We break down what DACA is and what it could mean for thousands of immigrants.

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to restart a program that protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation, the second ruling blocking the administration from ending the DACA program.

In a blistering 25-page opinion, U.S. District Judge John Bates for District of Columbia said that the Trump administration did not justify its decision to eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA.

Bates said the Department of Homeland Security, which runs the program, failed to "elaborate meaningfully on the agency’s primary rationale for its decision" and called the policy "unlawful and unconstitutional."

Protesters demand Congress act on DACA Protesters marched from the Washington Monument toward Capitol Hill to demand that Congress act to protect hundreds of thousands of young people from deportation as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was set to expire Monday. (March 5)

In April, Bates also ruled against the Trump administration's move to end the program but gave the government 90 days to better explains its rationale.

The government has 20 days, until Aug. 23, to appeal the ruling or the Trump administration will have to restart DACA, Bates wrote in the ruling.

The decision to end DACA has faced multiple legal hurdles. Bates joined judges in Brooklyn and San Francisco in ruling against the Trump administration.

Another ruling on the program is expected soon by a federal judge in Texas.

The dispute dates back to 2012, when then-president Barack Obama established the program without congressional action. The goal was to protect from deportation undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children, but many Republicans called it executive overreach and have remained opposed to the program.

The decision to end DACA marked an even deeper division along party lines after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in September that the Trump administration would end it.

Notably, in February, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House floor for eight hours about the young undocumented immigrants, known as Dreamers. Her marathon speech broke a record for the longest continuous speech in House history since at least 1909.