On December 4, 2020, Judge Garaufis of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take certain actions to implement his November 14, 2020 opinion regarding the July 2020 memorandum issued by Chad Wolf, the memorandum had reinstated the DACA program, but only for those who had already received DACA, without opening up applications to new potential recipients. It also limited the protections to one year with the option to renew.
Judge Garaufis ordered the government to reinstate DACA fully and immediately, restoring it to what it was prior to Sept. 2017, because of the recent Supreme Court decision, and plus the fact that the court had ruled on November 14, 2020 that Acting Secretary Chad F. Wolf was not lawfully serving as acting secretary of DHS, and accordingly, his memorandum on DACA had to be vacated.
Pursuant to December 04, 2020 ruling USCIS and DHS released a notice and according to them effective December 07, 2020, USCIS is:
- Accepting first-time requests for consideration of deferred action under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) based on the terms of the DACA policy in effect prior to September 5, 2017, and in accordance with the Court’s December 4, 2020, order;
- Accepting DACA renewal requests based on the terms of the DACA policy in effect prior to September 5, 2017, and in accordance with the Court’s December 4, 2020, order;
- Accepting applications for advance parole documents based on the terms of the DACA policy prior to September 5, 2017, and in accordance with the Court’s December 4, 2020, order;
- Extending one-year grants of deferred action under DACA to two years; and
- Extending one-year employment authorization documents under DACA to two years.
Also, as per the December 04, 2020 order, the government must provide a status report on DACA to the court by January 4, 2021. The report must provide information about the applications for DACA received, adjudicated, approved, denied, and rejected between November 14 and December 31, 2020, as well as the applications previously affected by the Wolf memo.
We will regularly update the blog as soon as any new information is available regarding DACA and possible relief that DHS will seek from this order.
Disclaimer
This article aims to provide new information concerning reinstatement of DACA. This article, under no circumstances, acts as legal advice; therefore, for any immigration questions, please contact your Attorney or the Ahluwalia Law Offices, P.C. (Team ALO).
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