On Thursday, as three appeal judges hear arguments on the Biden administration’s policy protecting them from deportation, protesters outside a federal courthouse in New Orleans will include immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as youngsters and grew up here.
At stake in the long legal battle playing out at the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals is the future of about 535,000 people who have long-established lives in the US, even though they don’t hold citizenship or legal residency status, and they live with the possibility of eventual deportation.
“No matter what is said and done, I choose the US, and I have the responsibility to make it a better place for all of us,” Greisa Martinez Rosas, said Wednesday. She is a beneficiary of the policy and a leader of the advocacy group United We Dream. She plans to travel from Arizona to attend a rally near the court, where hundreds of the policy’s supporters are expected to gather.
The panel hearing arguments won’t rule immediately. Whatever they decide, the case will almost certainly wind up at the US Supreme Court.
Former President Barack Obama first put the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in place in 2012, citing inaction by Congress on legislation aimed at giving those brought to the US as youngsters a path to legal status and citizenship. Years of litigation followed. President Joe Biden renewed the program in hopes of winning court approval.
But in September 2023, US District Judge Andrew Hanen in Houston said the executive branch had overstepped its authority in creating the program. Hanen barred the government from approving any new applications, but left the program intact for existing recipients, known as “Dreamers,” during appeals.
Defenders of the policy argue that Congress has given the executive branch’s Department of Homeland Security authority to set immigration policy, and that the states challenging the program have no basis to sue.
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