Federal immigration officials have revealed plans to reopen the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to new applicants to comply with a court order, though they cautioned the Trump administration retains the discretion to modify the Obama-era policy.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has made plans to accept and process new DACA applications from immigrants not enrolled in the initiative, which currently allows more than half a million so-called “Dreamers” to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation, the Justice Department said in a court filing Monday.
Dreamers are immigrants who, as children, entered the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas. The Obama administration created DACA in 2012 to protect this population from deportation amid congressional gridlock on immigration reform. Due to litigation, DACA has been closed to new applicants since 2021, though existing beneficiaries have been able to renew their two-year work permits.
To qualify for DACA, applicants must show they arrived in the U.S. by age 16 and before June 2007; that they enrolled in an American high school or enlisted in the military; and lack any serious criminal record.
The announcement that DACA could be reopened pending a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen was outlined in a Justice Department court filing in the years-long legal battle over the policy.
The government’s plan is designed to comply with an order from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in January that upheld Hanen’s finding that the DACA program is unlawful.
While the 5th Circuit found that a Biden administration regulation to codify DACA violated U.S. immigration law, the appeals court narrowed the ruling’s impact, making it applicable only in Texas, the state spearheading the Republican-led lawsuit against the program. The appellate court also paused its ruling as it relates to existing DACA beneficiaries.
To comply with that order, the Trump administration said it intends to process initial DACA requests once Hanen issues an order dictating the next steps in the case.
The administration said applicants in all states outside of Texas who are approved will be eligible for DACA’s deportation protections and work permits. Those residing in Texas will only be eligible for the program’s deportation deferrals — not work authorization. Texas residents approved for DACA will also not be considered to be lawfully present in the U.S., unlike existing recipients. Those who move to Texas could have their work permits revoked.
Texas has been able to convince federal courts that it has been harmed by the federal government’s efforts to grant work permits and other benefits to unauthorized immigrants through DACA.
As of the end of June, there were more than 525,000 people enrolled in DACA, with nearly 88,000 of them living in Texas, home to the second-largest Dreamer population in the country, according to federal data.
The Trump administration reiterated in its court filing Monday that these plans do not prevent the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS, “from undertaking any future lawful changes to DACA.”
While President Trump tried to terminate DACA during his first term — a move the Supreme Court blocked in 2020 on technical grounds — he has not articulated a firm plan for the program’s future during his second administration.
As the second Trump administration has dramatically expanded efforts across the country to arrest and deport people living in the U.S. unlawfully, some DACA recipients have been caught in the dragnet, including after traffic stops. While a grant of DACA offers a temporary reprieve from deportation, officials have wide-ranging discretion to revoke it.
In their own filing Monday, the Republican-led states challenging DACA’s legality asked Hanen to order the Trump administration to start a wind-down of the program, including for existing recipients. They argued Congress should decide the fate of DACA recipients.
“Sympathy for DACA recipients, understandable though it may be, is no substitute for statutory text or constitutional command,” the GOP-led states wrote in their filing. “Like all who reside within our borders, they must abide by the rule of law.”
