{"slug":"trump-children-daca-rescission-2017","title":"DACA Rescission: Ending Protection for 800,000 Childhood Arrivals","date":"2017-09-05","lastUpdated":"2020-06-18","description":"On September 5, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which had protected approximately 800,000 people — brought to the United States as children — from deportation and granted them work authorization. Trump gave Congress a six-month deadline to pass legislation. Congress did not act. Multiple federal courts blocked the rescission. The Supreme Court ruled in June 2020 that the rescission was 'arbitrary and capricious' under the Administrative Procedure Act and must be reversed.","summary":"DACA recipients — sometimes called Dreamers — had arrived in the United States as children, had lived here for years or decades, had submitted to background checks, and had registered with the government in reliance on the Obama administration's promise of temporary protection. Sessions announced the rescission by describing immigrants in terms that critics said echoed nativist rhetoric. The administration's stated legal basis was that DACA was an unconstitutional executive overreach; the Supreme Court did not reach this question, instead finding the rescission procedurally defective — the DHS Secretary had failed to adequately explain the agency's reasoning as required by the APA.","category":"civil-rights","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/us/politics/trump-daca-dreamers-immigration.html","title":"Trump Ends DACA and Calls on Congress to Act","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-moves-to-end-daca-program/2017/09/05/c1b3a576-9251-11e7-aace-04b862b2b3f3_story.html","title":"Trump administration moves to end DACA program","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/trump-daca-rescission-sessions","title":"Trump ends DACA protections; Congress given 6 months to act","publisher":"The Associated Press"},{"url":"https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-587_5ifl.pdf","title":"Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California","publisher":"U.S. Supreme Court"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["DACA","immigration","Dreamers","civil-rights","first-term","deportation","Supreme-Court"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2012-06-15","title":"Obama creates DACA by executive action","summary":"President Obama creates DACA through a DHS memo, granting two-year renewable deferrals of deportation and work authorization to approximately 800,000 people who arrived as children."},{"date":"2017-09-05","title":"Sessions announces DACA rescission with 6-month wind-down","summary":"AG Sessions announces the rescission of DACA, calling it unconstitutional. DHS Secretary Kelly issues a one-page memo. Trump gives Congress six months to pass legislation."},{"date":"2018-01-09","title":"Congressional deadline passes without legislation","summary":"The six-month deadline passes. Congress has failed to pass DACA legislation despite bipartisan pressure. Courts keep the program running through injunctions."},{"date":"2020-06-18","title":"Supreme Court rules rescission 'arbitrary and capricious'","summary":"The Supreme Court rules 5-4 that the DHS rescission violated the APA because the agency failed to consider the reliance interests of 800,000 DACA recipients. The program is preserved. Chief Justice Roberts writes the majority opinion."}],"location":{"name":"Washington, D.C.","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"judicial-finding","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights","article":"Article 23","provision":"Protection of the family — threatened deportation of people who have lived in the U.S. since childhood, often with citizen family members, raises Article 23 family separation concerns"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"Approximately 800,000 DACA recipients who had built lives, careers, and families in the United States in reliance on the program; citizen family members who would face family separation through deportation","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President; directed rescission of DACA over objections from many Republican business and congressional leaders","institution":"White House"},{"name":"Jeff Sessions","role":"Attorney General; announced the rescission; characterized DACA as unlawful amnesty","institution":"U.S. Department of Justice"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2020-06-18","summary":"Updated with Supreme Court ruling."}]}}