A US federal judge has sided with President Donald Trump in the legal tussle over a US immigration policy affecting young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children.
Judge Roger W Titus, a federal judge in Maryland, struck down a challenge from a number of individuals, known as “Dreamers,” and immigrant rights groups over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.
Titus’ ruling late on Monday said there was “reasonable belief that DACA was unlawful,” adding that Congress is the the branch of government charged with determining immigration policy, according to news reports quoting his opinion.
“Hopefully, the Congress and the president will finally get their job done,” he wrote.
Titus also took earlier rulings on DACA by federal judges in California and New York to task for blocking the phaseout.
He said those judges crossed constitutional lines in order to strike at Trump’s policies and substitute their own judgements.
Trump pointed to the ruling yesterday, saying in a tweet he is “waiting for the Dems” to come up with legislation for the Dreamers and other immigration issues.
The DACA programme was put in place in 2012 by former president Barack Obama through executive order and allows young immigrants brought into the country as children to stay while working or studying.
Trump announced in September that he would end the DACA programme.
That decision was supposed to take effect on Monday, but the deadline passed without any of the feared deportations because the fate of DACA is now up to the courts.
Members of the Border Network for Human Rights and Borders Dreamers and Youth Alliance protest outside a federal courthouse in El Paso, Texas, on Monday to demand that Congress pass a Clean Dream Act.
