Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds DACA

Contributed by Aaron Hall, Partner

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a challenge to the 2012 version of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program by the State of Mississippi and individual Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

In an April 7, 2015, opinion in Crane v. Johnson, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 2012 version of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, holding that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate that they would suffer any injury from the DACA program.

This is a different case than Texas v. United States, the case where a group of states are challenging portions of President Obama’s 2014 executive actions including the expansion of DACA and the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program.  Importantly, the court in Crane found that the State of Mississippi lacked standing based on the sparse evidentiary record in that case.  The states in the Texas case will undoubtedly hope to bolster their chances of having the court strike down DACA 2014 and DAPA by introducing studies on the costs to the states that they allege come from the deferred action programs.

Still, the Crane decision is from the Fifth Circuit, the same circuit where courts are considering the Texas v. United States.  The Fifth Circuit’s rejection of the challenge to the 2012 version of DACA is therefore very positive news for the prospects of the 2014 version of DACA and DAPA.