The University of California Office of the President released a statement on Wednesday in support of a federal judge’s Tuesday ruling that will keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program protections in place and require the government to receive new applications.

Judge John D. Bates from the District of Columbia said rescinding DACA was “arbitrary and capricious,” echoing previous federal rulings earlier this year, claiming the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to explain its conclusion that the program was unlawful. Courtesy of Wiki Commons

The UC said in its statement that the ruling “mirrors the January decision in the University of California’s successful suit that unwound the administration’s attempt to rescind DACA.”

The statement added that DACA program recipients “must be allowed to continue to legally live, work, learn, and contribute to this country as the Americans they are.”

The Nexus reported in March that the United States Supreme Court declined to hear President Donald J. Trump’s appeal to have the court view the UC’s case on DACA.

“The first set of challenges to DACA’s recession was filed in September 2017 in federal court in California,” according to Tuesday’s court documents.

Judge John D. Bates from the District of Columbia said rescinding DACA was “arbitrary and capricious,” echoing previous federal rulings earlier this year, claiming the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to explain its conclusion that the program was unlawful.

Bates said in his decision that this marks “just two of a series of challenges to the September 2017 rescission of DACA that have already been before several district courts, two circuit courts of appeals, and the Supreme Court on two occasions.”

According to Bates, neither the DHS’s legal reasoning nor its assessment of litigation risk was adequate enough to support its rescindment of DACA.

The order will not go into effect until 90 days from now, giving DHS the opportunity to “better explain its rescission decision.” If the department fails to do so, it “must accept and process new as well as renewal DACA applications,” Bates said in his decision.

The UC Office of the President specified they will not only continue to fight for DACA in the courts, but they will also urge Congress to pass legislation “that will provide permanent statutory protection for DACA.”

A version of this article appeared on p.4 of the April 26 print edition of the Daily Nexus.

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