Judge Rules DACA Recipients Have Due Process Rights

A federal judge in Seattle, Washington, ruled that illegal aliens receiving amnesty under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) cannot have their status revoked without due process.

Judge Ricardo S. Martinez, appointed by President George W. Bush, said illegal aliens have due process rights and that DACA cannot be canceled justification, The Washington Times reported.

“While the Court recognizes and acknowledges that DACA does not confer lawful status upon an individual, the Court also finds that the representations made to applicants for DACA cannot and do not suggest that no process is due to them, particularly in Plaintiff’s case where benefits have already been conferred,” Judge Martinez stated in his ruling.

The judge did not explain what due process procedures might be acceptable.

“What process is due, and whether Plaintiff received such process, are ultimately questions for another day. But at this stage of the proceedings the Court is satisfied that Plaintiff has raised a plausible due process claim that will not be dismissed,” Martinez explained.

Texas and nine other states announced they would sue the Trump Administration if it did not end the DACA program in June, Breitbart Texas reported. The states threatened to add DACA to an existing lawsuit that effectively ended Obama’s other amnesty program, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA).

“We respectfully request that the Secretary of Homeland Security phase out the DACA program,” Texas Attorney General Paxton and the coalition wrote in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “Just like DAPA, DACA unilaterally confers eligibility for work authorization and lawful presence without any statutory authorization from Congress.”

“For these same reasons that DAPA and Expanded DACA’s unilateral Executive Branch conferral of eligibility for lawful presence and work authorization was unlawful, the original June 15, 2012 DACA memorandum is also unlawful,” the letter continued. “The original 2012 DACA program covers over one million otherwise unlawfully present aliens.”

As the deadline for the threatened lawsuit approached, Attorney General Sessions announced the Trump Administration would end the DACA program, Breitbart News reported.

“I’m here today to announce that the program known as DACA that was effectuated by the Obama administration is being rescinded,” Sessions said. The attorney general later called for an “orderly and lawful wind-down.”

President Donald Trump put the responsibility for a DACA replacement program in the laps of congressional leaders — giving them six months to act or he would revisit the program, Joel Pollack reported for Breitbart News.

Shortly after the administration’s announcement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the states would drop the threatened lawsuit.

Paxton and other officials from 10 states were hit with major pushback efforts by the open borders lobby to drop their lawsuit against DACA, Breitbart Texas reported.