Federal Appeals court rules that Obama-era DACA program is unlawful in Texas

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld most of a lower court's ruling that former President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was unconstitutional, throwing the future of the program in jeopardy. 

U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in September of 2023 ruled that the Biden administration could not codify the program as a memorandum and that efforts to do so violated immigration law, according to The Hill. 

The Appeals court decision only upheld Hanen's ruling for the state of Texas, thereby suspending the program in the Lone Star state, and said the judge was incorrect in halting the program nationwide, per CNN. 

The court ruled that Texas was the only state to demonstrate “sufficient evidence that DACA has caused the harms it alleges and that those costs would be partially alleviated if DACA were enjoined."

The state had argued that “DACA recipients impose over $750 million in annual costs on the state, those costs are traceable to and exacerbated by the Final Rule, and a favorable judgment against DACA would at least partially alleviate Texas’s harm,” the judges wrote, according to Bloomberg Law.

The court also barred the government from accepting new DACA applications.

The order comes as President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office on Monday, which means the Biden administration has no time to try and further appeal the decision. The incoming Trump administration has not commented on the ruling so far.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.