Judge Orders Trump Administration To Restore DACA As It Existed Under Obama

People are pictured demonstrating in June in favor of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Immigrant rights advocates hailed Friday’s ruling allowing new applications as a “huge victory for people who have been waiting to apply for DACA for the first time.”

Damian Dovarganes / AP

A federal judge has reversed the Trump administration’s latest round of rules placing further limits on the Obama-era program that shields undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children from deportation.

Under the order filed Friday, Judge Nicholas Garaufis of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn instructed the Department of Homeland Security to begin accepting new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as soon as Monday.

In his ruling, Garaufis said the terms of the federal program must be immediately restored to what they were “prior to the attempted rescission of September 2017” when the White House began a series of maneuvers to dismantle the program.