Preliminary Injunction of 2/16/2015: What You Need to Know

UPDATE: 5/26/2015: The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit DENIED the government's request to lift the preliminary injunction of 2/16/2015. This does NOT mean DAPA or expanded DACA is dead; it just means we have to wait a little longer for the Courts to decide the actual issue, not the temporary injunction blocking it. Please stay tuned as we will post updates as soon as they become available.

Read the opinion here.

Haga clic aquí para leer en español.

On February 16, 2015 Judge Andrew S. Hanen of the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas (Brownsville Division) issued the now well-known 123-page whopper of an opinion (part 2, part 3) putting the brakes on two of President Obama's Executive Actions on immigration.

We've written extensively about these executive actions.

If you or someone you know qualified to apply, here's the minimum you need to know about the ruling:

• The only executive actions affected are expanded DACA and DAPA.
  
• Those who qualified for the first DACA program announced in June 2012 remain eligible to apply (even for the first time) or renew.
  
• Those who want to apply under expanded DACA (originally supposed to begin February 18, 2015) or DAPA (slated to begin May 19, 2015) will, for now, have to wait.
  
• The ruling does not affect any other executive action. Thus, people in removal proceedings who want to try to have their cases administratively closed can still try.
  
• The ruling is a temporary injunction. The judge did not say he thinks expanded DACA and DAPA are illegal; he only said that the government cannot move forward with these two programs until he (or some higher court) makes a final determination.
  
  

The decision has been widely criticized not only by those in the immigrant rights community, but by legal experts who question the strength of the ruling's legal footing.