DACA program's fate uncertain as it's debated in appeals court amid six-year legal challenge

The future of roughly 580,000 DACA recipients and their families are at stake as Republican attempts to end the program make their way through the court system.

Attorneys representing young immigrants protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA, defended the legality of the program before an federal appellate court Thursday in an attempt to keep it alive — as its fate remains uncertain amid a six-year court battle.

At the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, three appellate judges heard arguments over recent efforts by the Biden administration to turn DACA into a federal regulation, hoping to increase the program's chances of surviving legal challenges in the future.

The Obama-era program was first challenged in 2018, when Texas and eight other Republican-led states sought to end the program after then-President Donald Trump's efforts to terminate it failed. A Supreme Court ruling kept DACA in place.

Since it was put in place 12 years ago, DACA has allowed eligible young adults who came to the U.S. as children but lack legal immigration status to work and study without fear of deportation. 

The Republican states have argued that they have suffered damages and injuries by spending millions of dollars on DACA recipients.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/daca-program-appeals-court-legal-challenge-rcna174900

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