President Biden's Executive Action on DACA

President Biden, on his first day holding the land's highest executive office, signed an executive order to "preserve and fortify" DACA. Though it has sent a wave of relief across affected immigrant population, the move is largely a symbolic one. 

The reason is simple. DACA, as it stands today, is fully reinstated by a federal court order from NY after the judge had deemed former Acting Secretary of DHS Wolf's actions unconstitutional in the light of the fact that he had yet to be confirmed by the Senate. On the other hand, DACA's constitutionality is being challenged in a "replay" federal court lawsuit in Texas. Judge Hanen, who happens to be an immigration hawk, had decided against nullifying DACA the last time the subject was brought to his desk. The reason was surprisingly seen to be driven by an entirely humanitarian rationale in that the judge was not willing to put hundreds of thousands of lives in peril because of a lawsuit brought few years too late in front of him. As of today, Judge Hanen is facing the question, this time head on, of DACA's  constitutionality as an executively authorized program.

Moreover, Supreme Court had kept DACA in place not because it had deemed the order to be constitutional (in fact, the court was crystal clear that it wasn't passing judgement on the constitutional merits of the subject), but because it wasn't repealed by Trump administration in an appropriate manner given the significant "reliance interest" of DACA recipients and their families. 

President Biden's latest executive order, if looked upon with a magnifying glass, really isn't going to amount to much. Current administration is going to keep the program in place, hence, the question of repealing it in any manner is irrelevant. If, however, Judge Hanen concludes the program to be unconstitutional and decides to scrap it altogether, there's nothing much Biden administration can do from an executive point of view other than gear up for a legal challenge. And if, by a miracle, Hanen marks it as constitutional, then DACA is free. 

For now, DACA, because of NY court order, is in place in full force. 

What Biden has done by signing this order is project DACA's place in his list of priorities. What really is needed is a legislative relief for the recipients covered by the program. Permanent residency and a life of dignity is all there is left to be given. But with Congress, it's still not inevitable.