Biden admin. pushes court to revive 'Dreamers' immigration program

(Reuters) - A lawyer for the Biden administration on Wednesday urged a U.S. appeals court to toss out a ruling blocking an Obama-era program that protects certain immigrants who came to the United States as children from deportation.

Brian Boynton of the U.S. Department of Justice told a three-judge 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in New Orleans that the state of Texas, which challenged the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2018, failed to back up claims that it was forced to increase spending on social services because of DACA.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security established the program in 2012 to protect children who were brought to the U.S. as children illegally or on visas that have since expired from deportation, grant them work authorization, and give them access to drivers' licenses and financial aid for education. There are an estimated 700,000 DACA recipients, known as "Dreamers," currently residing in the United States.

A Texas federal judge in July 2021 blocked new applications to the program, but said the hundreds of thousands of people already enrolled would not be affected until further court rulings.

The judge found that DACA was an unlawful end-run around the legislative process because it provided benefits to recipients without congressional authorization. The Biden administration appealed.

On Wednesday, Boynton told the 5th Circuit that Texas never had standing to challenge DACA in the first place. The harms alleged by the state are speculative, and Texas failed to show any specific expenditures resulting directly from the program, he said.

Circuit Judges James Ho, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, sounded unconvinced. Ho repeatedly pointed to a survey submitted by a group of DACA recipients who intervened in the case, in which 22% of respondents said they were likely to leave the U.S. if DACA were struck down.

Texas, which was joined in the lawsuit by eight other Republican-led states, has said the survey shows that the state's social services spending would decrease if DACA were repealed.

"If it's too speculative for the beneficiaries themselves to say they would leave, it seems like you're saying there's no way there could ever be standing in a case like this," Ho said to Boynton.

Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone told the panel that to establish standing, the state only had to show "a dollar of spending" on services for DACA recipients. And expert testimony and other evidence in the case made clear that the program had cost the state millions in healthcare costs alone, Stone said.

The 5th Circuit panel also included Circuit Judges Priscilla Richman, an appointee of former Republican President George W. Bush, and Trump appointee Kurt Engelhardt, who said little during the arguments.

The Trump administration had moved to repeal DACA, but the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020 said it had not followed the proper steps to do so.

Last September, the Biden administration proposed a rule that would move DACA recipients to the back of the line to be deported, in a bid to preserve the program. DHS has said it could adopt a final rule as soon as next month.

The case is Texas v. United States, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 21-40680.

For the states: Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone

For the Biden administration: Brian Boynton of the U.S. Department of Justice

For the intervenors: Nina Perales of the Mexican-American Legal Defense & Educational Fund; Jeremy Feigenbaum of the New Jersey Attorney General's office

Read more:

U.S. judge rules DACA program illegal, suspends new applications

Biden administration moves to protect 'Dreamers' from deportation

Biden admin. files appeal in states' challenge to DACA

U.S. Supreme Court thwarts Trump plan to end 'Dreamers' immigrant program

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