Wednesday, July 1, 2020

A Trump-appointed federal district judge in Washington, DC has issued an opinion striking down a Trump Administration rule requiring migrants seeking to enter the United States to first seek asylum in countries they travel through on their way.  Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued his order and its accompanying opinion late in the evening on Tuesday. June 30, 2020, concluding that the ban failed to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) governing how agencies should implement rules.  The Administration had issued the ban in July of 2019 in an effort to prevent Central American migrants fleeing violence in their countries from seeking asylum in the United States, 

Sunday, June 28, 2020

For nearly two years, immigration stakeholders and policymakers awaited action in the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on the legality of the Trump Administration's September 2017 attempt to end the popular Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). As late June of 2020 approached, the pro-immigrant advocacy community braced itself for what it thought would certainly be a decision affirming the Administration's authority to rescind DACA.  However, in a totally unexpected decision, on Thursday, June 18, 2020, SCOTUS ruled that the Administration improperly moved to rescind DACA, saving, for now at least, the hundreds of thousands of young people brought to the United States illegally while they were children. 

The long-awaited SCOTUS DACA decision was just one of five consequential decisions issued by SCOTUS and lower federal courts on immigration matters in recent days.

Trump Suggests He Will Try Again in the
​Coming Days to Rescind DACA

Saturday, June 20, 2020

Click the Play Button, above, to see excerpts from the June 19, 2020 White House press briefing, during which the White House press Secretary responds to questions about DACA.

President Donald J. Trump and members of his Administration on Friday suggested that, notwithstanding a  decision against him by the Supreme Court of the United States  (the Court), his Administration will soon make another attempt to rescind a popular program that has protected as many as 800,000 young persons who have lived in the United States most of their lives after being brought illegally to the country as children.  The President implied that he would soon act to bring the program to an end  the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) via a series of posts on Twitter, a widely used microblogging platform, and his suggestion was reinforced later in the day by the White House Press Secretary.

Thursday, June 18, 2020