Judge orders Trump to turn over DACA legal advice: report

A federal district court judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to release legal advice and information on its move to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which shields undocumented citizens from deportation, Politico reported. 

U.S. District Judge William Alsup’s order, published by Politico, requires that the government turn over by Oct. 27 all materials that led to the decision by acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke to roll back the program. The judge also ordered the administration to hand over information that informed the February decision of then-DHS Secretary John Kelly to keep the program.  

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“Defendants argue that [the Department of Homeland Security] had to rescind DACA because it exceeded the lawful authority of the agency,” Alsup wrote. “They cannot, therefore, simultaneously refuse to disclose the legal research that led to that conclusion. 

“Defendants have waived attorney-client privilege over any materials that bore on whether or not DACA was an unlawful exercise of executive power and therefore should be rescinded,” Aslup wrote. 

President Obama implemented the DACA program to give work permits to persons illegally residing in the U.S. who were brought into the country as young children, allowing them to contribute to the work force and seek higher education. It also temporarily shielded them from deportation.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Trump administration’s decision to end the program, which Obama had implemented through an executive memo, claiming that it was an extra-legal maneuver. 

Upon announcing the end of the program, Trump gave Congress a six-month window to pass proper legislation providing protections to the DACA program recipients known as “Dreamers.” The White House released a set of benchmarks on border security earlier this month that must be met in any legislation to encode DACA protections.