US to Accept Dreamers’ DACA Applications After 4-Year Freeze

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Young immigrants brought to the US without authorization as children could soon file new requests for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Department of Homeland Security said, ending a long-running court imposed pause on the program.

The Trump administration said in a court filing Monday that it would summarize processing of initial DACA applications in response to a federal appeals court’s January ruling. New requests for the protections had been blocked by a district court order since 2021. The government submitted the plan in response to a request for briefings on how the January decision should be carried out.

First launched in 2012, DACA offers protections from deportation and work eligibility to immigrants known as Dreamers who arrived in the US as children and were no older than 30 when it was set up. Legal battles over the Obama era-program have stretched back to the first Trump administration’s attempt to end the protections.

More than half a million current DACA recipients have continued to benefit from protections and employment authorization while litigation played out, although their long-term status has appeared increasingly uncertain. The plan to begin processing new applications is a rare win for immigrants among broader Department of Homeland efforts since January to dismantle temporary humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found DACA illegal in January, but it kept a stay in place maintaining protections for now and narrowed what had been a nationwide injunction on new benefits to only Texas. Other GOP-led states suing to overturn the program had failed to show legal standing to challenge the program, the three-judge panel said.

Judge Andrew Hanen of the Southern District of Texas, who issued the original injunction barring new applications in 2021, asked parties involved in the litigation to submit briefs on how it should be narrowed in light of the Fifth Circuit’s ruling.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services would award initial DACA applications filed before and after the 2021 injunction, the Trump administration said in Monday’s court filing. Applicants residing in Texas may only receive deferred action, not a work permit or legal presence classification.

Relocating to the state risks DACA recipients’ continued employment authorization. Renewals for current DACA recipients will also continue, the government said.

Republican states opposing the program argued in a separate filing Monday that the DACA benefits should be wound down for recipients across the country in light of the Fifth Circuit’s finding that the program was unlawful. Immigrant intervenors represented by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said the court should clarify that the federal government is no longer barred from accepting and adjudicating new DACA applications after the appellate court decision. No initial applications have been approved since January, the group said.

USCIS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the timeline for the plan if approved by the court.

The Justice Department represents DHS in the case. States involved in the litigation are represented by their respective attorneys general offices. Defendant intervenors defending the program are represented by MALDEF, Ropes and Gray LLP, and Garcia & Garcia, attorneys at Law PLLC.

The case is Texas v. US, S.D. Tex., No. 1:18-cv-00068, response filed 9/29/25.