[author: Westford Lang]

On Thursday, June 15, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly rescinded an Obama administration memorandum creating DAPA, a deferred deportation program for undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

DAPA would have allowed these undocumented parents to apply for three-year work authorization permits and deportation deferment protection, allowing the persons to be lawfully present for as long as the grant of deferred action status lasted.

This program never went into effect, as a Texas judge issued an injunction in 2015 after twenty-six states challenged the policies. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision, and in 2016 the Supreme Court allowed the district court’s injunction to remain in place, blocking the Government from further pursuing the DAPA program or expanding the previously implemented DACA program. When Secretary Kelly rescinded the memo, he stated on the DHS website that “there is no credible path forward” in court.

DACA is another Obama-era immigration policy that initially went into effect in 2012, allowing certain illegal aliens that entered the country as minors to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit.

The DHS further stated that “the rescission [of the 2014 memo on DAPA and the expansion of DACA] will not affect the terms of the original DACA program as outlined in the June 15, 2012 memorandum.”