The Trump administration failed again to convince a federal judge that there’s a legitimate reason to rescind legal protections for hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and seek to avoid deportation. U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington said last Friday, August 3, 2018, that a second attempt by the Department of Homeland Security to offer a “rational explanation” for the agency’s decision had fallen short. “The court simply holds that if DHS wishes to rescind the program — or to take any other action, for that matter — it must give a rational explanation for its decision,” Bates said. “A conclusory assertion that a prior policy is illegal, accompanied by a hodgepodge of illogical or post hoc policy assertions, simply will not do. The court therefore reaffirms its conclusion that DACA’s rescission was unlawful and must be set aside.” The judge called the plan “virtually unexplained”.
Judge Bates gave the administration 20 days to decide whether it would appeal before he blocks the DACA rescission.
