Federal appeals court upholds ruling against Trump’s effort to end ‘Dreamers’ program

(JTA) — A federal appeals court upheld a ruling that President Donald Trump cannot end a program favored by multiple Jewish groups that protects undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

On Thursday, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit concurred with a federal district judge’s decision from January that Trump lacked the authority to eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, The Associated Press reported. Trump proposed terminating the program last year for the “Dreamers” in hopes of prodding Congress to act.

Following Trump’s announcement in September 2017 of the plan to end DACA, the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center called on him to reconsider. Richard Foltin, the American Jewish Committee’s director of government affairs, called the decision “devastating,” and the Anti-Defamation League said it was one of “a long list of actions and policies by this administration that have deeply hurt immigrants and their families.”

The program was initiated under the administration of former President Barack Obama.

“Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claim that the rescission of DACA – at least as justified on this record – is arbitrary, capricious or otherwise not in accordance with law,” the three-member federal panel said in its ruling Thursday.

Other Jewish organizations that condemned the decision to end DACA included Bend the Arc, J Street, the National Council of Jewish Women, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, the Shalom Center and the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect. Bend the Arc listed rallies across the country it would join to oppose the decision.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the umbrella body for public policy, said it “strongly opposed” the decision and called on Congress to act to protect the Dreamers.