Thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children are immediately eligible to apply for an Obama-era program that grants them work permits, a federal judge in New York ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis in Brooklyn said he was fully restoring the eight-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program to the days before the Trump administration tried to end it in September 2017. He ordered the Department of Homeland Security to post a public notice by Monday to accept first-time applications and ensure that work permits are valid for two years.

Acting Homeland Security secretary Chad Wolf had issued a memo in July reducing DACA recipients’ work permits to one year, but Garaufis ruled last month that Wolf had unlawfully ascended to the agency’s top job and vacated the memo….

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Attorneys general in Texas and other states have asked a federal judge to declare DACA unlawful and to provide for an orderly wind down of it. A hearing in that case is scheduled for later this month.

Karen Tumlin, a lawyer for the immigrants in the case, cheered the New York judge’s ruling Friday. But she said the immigrants need Congress to pass a law that would grant them a firm path to citizenship.

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Update*….

12/7/2020

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Monday that it will be accepting new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program after a judge ordered the Trump administration to restore the program on Friday, CNN reports.

According to a release on the DHS website, first-time DACA requests will now be accepted along with renewals. One-year grants of extended action and employment authorization will be expanded to two years.

Despite complying with the order issued by Judge Nicholas Garaufis, DHS indicated it may appeal the decision….

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