5th Circuit Dismisses Challenge of 2012 DACA Amnesty by ICE Agents, Mississippi

April 8, 2015

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the ICE Agents and the State of Mississippi lacked standing to sue over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program President Obama set up in 2012, Politico reports. Upholding a district court ruling, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit said the plaintiffs’ argument that the program would cause them harm was speculative.

The court’s opinion said “The district court held that Mississippi’s alleged fiscal injury was purely speculative because there was no concrete evidence that Mississippi’s costs had increased or will increase as a result of DACA. Based on the record before the district court, we agree…The unlikelihood of an agency sanction against an agent for exercising discretion expressly granted under together with the fact that no sanctions — or warning of sanctions — have been issued for that exercise persuades us that the Agents are not under a “certainly impending” threat of an adverse personnel action that is sufficiently concrete and particularized to qualify as an injury in fact that gives Plaintiffs standing.”

Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State and attorney representing the ICE Agents, told the Dallas Morning News, “we disagree strongly that the injury is hypothetical. The only thing that is not concrete is the exact dollar amount…We will be seeking further review. Kobach said the plaintiffs may ask for an en banc ruling under which the full circuit court would re-examine the case.

Legal experts are now examining whether this ruling might have implications for the case in the 5th Circuit brought by 26 states over the executive amnesties Obama announced in November 2014. The justices found a lack of evidence in the instant case but Texas and other states are presenting different evidence of the financial harm caused by Obama’s expanded DACA amnesty and the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability amnesty. A three-judge panel in the latter case will hear oral arguments on April 17th.