NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Immigrants who built a life in the United States after being brought here illegally as children were among more than 200 protesters who gathered Thursday outside a federal courthouse in New Orleans, where three Appellate judges heard arguments about the Biden administration’s shielding policy before the deportation.
At stake in the long legal battle before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are the futures of about 535,000 people who have long lived in the United States, even if they do not have citizenship or legal residency status and will do so at some point could be deported. The case will likely end up in the Supreme Court.
“I live here. I work here. I own a house here,” said María Rocha-Carrillo, 37. She traveled from her home in New York to attend the demonstration and was in the front row of a crowded courtroom as the hearing began.
She said she was brought to the United States at age 3 when family members immigrated from Mexico, where she was born. She was unable to obtain a teaching certificate until the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program allowed her to build a career in education.
DACA opponents, primarily Texas and eight other Republican-led states, have said in court hearings and legal briefs that allowing immigrants to remain in the country illegally will result in hundreds of millions of dollars in health, education and other costs for states.
A central element of the arguments before the Appellate Body is whether lead plaintiff Texas demonstrated standing to bring a lawsuit and whether a lower court judge in Texas had the authority to enter a statewide judgment.
DACA proponents argued that Texas had not demonstrated that the costs it cited were due to the policy and therefore had not shown that it was justified. Judge Stephen Higginson, questioning Joseph Mazzara of the Texas Attorney General’s Office, noted that 22 states have reported benefiting from contributions from DACA recipients, known as “Dreamers.”
“How could a single judge tell all 22 other states that are so grateful to these people that they must actually all leave the United States?” asked Higginson. “How does a single judge have this authority?”
But Judge Jerry Smith said he doubted Texas had no legal standing.
“I don’t understand how you can move forward with this argument,” Smith told Brian Boynton, who was making the case for the Biden administration.
An earlier ruling from the 5th Circuit ruled that Texas did have standing to sue. Boynton said the Supreme Court has since raised the bar for states to prove their standing to sue, but Smith said the precedents cited by Boynton do not contain clear language that would force the appeals court to reverse its earlier finding.
It was unclear when and how the panel — Smith, who was nominated by former President Ronald Reagan for the 5th District; Edith Brown Clement, nominated by former President George W. Bush; and Higginson, nominated by former President Barack Obama, will govern. The case will almost certainly end up in the Supreme Court.
Obama first introduced DACA in 2012, citing congressional inaction on legislation aimed at providing a path to legal status and citizenship for those brought to the U.S. as juveniles. Years of legal disputes followed. President Joe Biden renewed the program in hopes of winning court approval.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Houston said the executive branch had overstepped its authority. Hanen prohibited the government from approving fresh applications, but left this untouched in appeals for those who had already been approved for deferred status. Boynton urged the 5th Circuit judges to keep that policy in place while the appeals process continues if they rule against DACA.
Outside the courthouse Thursday, 24-year-old Wendy Reynoso said she was brought to the United States from Guatemala as an infant by her family. She said her DACA application is pending while the litigation continues, leaving her unable to find work as a mechanical engineer after college.
“It hurts because even though I got such a good degree, I can’t use it. So I’m just stuck,” she said.
Proponents of this policy argue that Congress has given the executive branch’s Department of Homeland Security the authority to set immigration policy.
The states that have joined Texas in challenging DACA are Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas and Mississippi.
Those states’ allies in court filings include the Immigration Reform Law Institute. “Congress has repeatedly refused to legalize DACA recipients, and no administration can take this step in its place,” the group’s executive director, Dale L. Wilcox, said in a statement this year.
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This version includes the correct spelling of DACA recipient María Rocha-Carrillo’s name. In some earlier versions it was incorrectly spelled as Marea Rocha Carrillo.
