A federal judge in New York today heard arguments from the lawsuit filed by an immigrant affected by the Donald Trump administration’s decision to end the DACA program, and set the next hearing for September 26.
The lawsuit is filed by Mexican Martin Batalla Vidal, a 26-year-old “dreamer,” as undocumented beneficiaries of the program, created in 2012 by President Barack Obama’s executive order, are known to be law suits. class if your claim is accepted by Judge Nicholas Garaufis at the next hearing.
In this way they would shelter the 800,000 young people who had been granted the initiative that protected them from deportation, allowed them to study, work and travel in the United States. legally.
His lawyers, from the California-based National Immigration Law Center and the Yale University School of Law in Connecticut, said today that the lawsuit will be amended first to add four young people from New York to a document that will submit to Tuesday the court, which will also abound in their arguments against eliminating the program.
They will argue that the decision to revoke DACA violates the federal law on administrative procedures because a long-standing and trusted policy can not be abruptly eliminated.
They also argue that it violates the equality protection provided by the Constitution to all who live in this country, said the lawyers at the conclusion of the hearing.
Battle and the New York Pathway organization went to the Brooklyn district court shortly after the federal government announced the revocation of the DACA (Decedent Action for Child Arrivals) program last September 5.
The Government determined that “dreamers” who have yet to renew their registration with DACA must do so before October 5, after which no new request will be accepted.
The lawsuit filed today in New York is the first since those measures were announced, but not the first judicial remedy brought in the country by an immigrant under the DACA program whose deportation is ordered by the authorities.
The date of October 5 centered most of the hearing today, because it is very close, and the magistrate asked the lawyer of the Government the possibility of extending it because thousands of young people would be affected.
The judge cited a tweet in which Trump refers to “dreamers” as “educated,” people who have homes and children, so revoking the program would also affect their families.
According to the lawyers of Battle, it is estimated that 150,000 “dreamers” in the country will not be able to meet the date of October 5, since some live in areas affected by hurricanes or do not have the money to do so.
They further explained that the judge also asked the government lawyer why if the DACA is unconstitutional they have arbitrarily imposed the dates of October 5 and March 5, 2018.
By 5 March, Congress, the only one with power to change the immigration system, must have found a solution to regularize the situation of young people, according to the Trump administration.
The magistrate ordered the lawyer of the Government to consult with his client the possibility of extending the date of October 5, answer that must have for the next hearing, as well as his arguments of why not to eliminate DACA would affect to the Government.
The suit argues that it was “unconstitutional” to end the program because it violates the right to equal protection by race, color or religion, and that it was a “racist” and “discriminatory” action especially against Mexicans, who are 79 per cent. of those who took part in the initiative.
Battle told Efe to be happy because the judge understood the human side of why DACA should not be eliminated.
“It’s a big battle,” said Hope, who was brought in from Mexico when he was eight years old. After completing the DACA, he completed nursing assistant studies and works in a care center for patients with various diseases.
