Federal judge orders DACA restored including initial applications

Federal District Court Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis issued an order on December 4, 2020, effectively restoring the DACA program to its previous rules. This court had previously found that purported Acting Secretary Chad Wolf was illegally appointed and ruled against the 2020 DACA memorandum.

Following that decision, it was unclear that the US Department of Homeland Security would voluntarily take the next step of restoring the DACA program. They did not, and now the court has made a clear order to force that relief. The court certified a class of all individuals who are currently or will be eligible for DACA under the original 2012 memorandum.

The court vacated the Wolf memorandum and entered the following orders:

• DHS must post a public notice within three days on all its websites that it is accepting first-time DACA requests, renewal requests, and advance parole requests based on the old DACA rules
• All work permits issued for one year must be automatically extended to two years
• DHS must discuss measures to individually communicate with the class members and provide notices by mail by December 31, 2020

Read the judge’s order on DACA by clicking below.