Appeals court orders another look at revised DACA

NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court Wednesday ordered a lower court review of Biden administration revisions to a program preventing the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought into the United States as children.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a federal district judge in Texas should take another look at the program following the revisions adopted in August. The ruling, for now, leaves the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals up in the air.

“It appears that the status quo for DACA remains,” said Veronica Garcia, an attorney for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, an advocacy organization.

DACA was adopted by former President Barack Obama’s administration and has had a complicated ride through federal court challenges.

Texas-based U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen last year declared DACA illegal. But he left the program temporarily intact for those already benefiting from it, pending the appeal.

Wednesday’s ruling by three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upholds the judge’s initial finding. But it sends the case back to him for a look at a new version of the rule issued by the Biden administration in late August.

“A district court is in the best position to review the administrative record in the rulemaking proceeding,” the opinion said.