A Republican Judge Shot Down Trump's Ongoing Attempts to Destroy DACA

In a 60-page ruling issued today, Republican federal judge John Bates halted the Trump White House's attempts to dismantle DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

It's the third rejection of Trump's move to terminate the program, which protects child immigrants from deportation and allows them to work legally in the United States. Two other judges have already declined Trump's actions, but this third refusal is the first to require the administration to begin accepting new DACA applications. Bates is also the first Republican judge to defy Trump's proposal.

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Bates called Trump's intentions "arbitrary and capricious" and said that the legal argument his team provided to end the program "failed adequately to explain its conclusion that the program was unlawful."

San Francisco and Brooklyn judges had already ruled the legal attempts to be invalid and required the administration to accept applications for two-year DACA renewals.

The judge did grant Trump's administration 90 days to further explain their reasoning.