WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has urged a Texas federal judge to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in a case that threatens protections for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children.
The Justice Department argued Thursday that the administration’s latest version of the DACA program, which provides work permits and deportation relief for certain immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors, is a legal use of the government’s authority to decide which undocumented immigrants to prioritize for deportation.
The Department of Homeland Security’s “resources are limited,” which requires the government to reduce the priority for undocumented immigrants who have strong ties to the country, including those who were brought as children and “have never known another country as home,” the DOJ wrote in a court filing.
