Prof. Peter Margulies on Texas v. U.S. (CA5, DACA)

Prof. Peter Margulies, Lawfare, Oct. 7, 2022

"On Oct. 5, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held in Texas v. United States that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program conflicted with the limits on executive authority in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The decision was written by Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Priscilla Richman and joined by Judges Kurt Engelhardt and James Ho. It upheld a 2021 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen (see my analysis of Hanen’s ruling here). The panel’s decision left intact Hanen’s stay of his earlier injunction, allowing current DACA recipients to continue in the program. On the merits, the panel addressed only the 2012 memorandum by then-Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano creating DACA; it left for Hanen the job of assessing DACA’s legality under the final rule issued on Aug. 30 by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. However, the panel’s reasoning also casts doubt on the final DACA rule’s validity. ..."

Peter S. Margulies is a professor at Roger Williams University School of Law, where he teaches Immigration Law, National Security Law and Professional Responsibility. He is the author of Law’s Detour: Justice Displaced in the Bush Administration (New York: NYU Press, 2010).