WASHINGTON (CNS: On August 3, United States district judge, John Bates, ordered the Trump administration to fully restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme (DACA), which helps young adults brought into the country illegally as minors, saying reasons calling for its demise were not justified.
 
In September 2017, US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said the administration was ending the programme through executive action claiming it was “an unconstitutional exercise of authority.”
 
Bates’ order says DACA must be made whole again and that includes taking new applications. 
 
Previously, on April 24, the judge, noting its “meager legal reasoning” gave the administration time “to better explain its view that DACA is unlawful,” saying, “arbitrary and capricious because the (Department of Homeland Affairs) failed adequately to explain its conclusion that the programme was unlawful.” (Sunday Examiner, May 6).
 
The judge gave government officials until August 23 to appeal the decision.
 
The attempt by the Trump administration to end DACA has faced a number of legal challenges ever since Sessions’ call to rescind it. 
 
While DACA does not provide legal status for the young adults, it provides a work permit, reprieve from deportation and other temporary relief to those who qualify. 
 
DACA began in 2012 under then-president, Barack Obama. As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump said he would end the policy. 
 
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 2017 called the cancellation “reprehensible” saying that it caused “unnecessary fear for DACA youth and their families.” 
 
The USCCB, along with a variety of Catholic groups, organisations and religious orders, have since called for a solution to help the young adults.