Dreamer Said to Be Targeted by Feds Takes DACA Case to 9th Cir.

A former DACA recipient whom a federal judge said was the target of an apparent “three-year vendetta” by the Homeland Security Department is bringing his case to the Ninth Circuit.

Daniel Ramirez Medina originally had his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program benefits revoked for suspected gang activity, but successfully got that decision overturned twice in federal court.

In October, however, Judge Ricardo S. Martinez of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington reluctantly held that he lacked authority to overturn the DHS’s decision not to grant Ramirez’s DACA renewal application. Martinez did so after slamming the DHS for its “harassment” of Ramirez and a series of actions that “cultivate and nourish suspicion.”

Ramirez’s case—as well as a separate class action—focus on the Trump administration’s efforts to automatically revoke DACA protections when an immigrant receives a “notice to appear” for removal proceedings. Ramirez received such a notice after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even though he informed the officers that he was a DACA recipient.

Ramirez Dec. 6 told the district court that he’s appealing the order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Backdoor Termination

Immigration advocates view the revocations as a backdoor effort to end the program, which provides deportation protection and work permits to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, also known as “dreamers.”

Automatic DACA revocation was halted by a federal judge in California, and an appeal is pending in the Ninth Circuit.

That case is on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court resolves three challenges to the Trump administration’s decision to end the entire DACA program, which it maintains is unlawful. The justices heard oral arguments last month, and a decision is expected sometime in the spring.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Public Counsel; the Hawkins Law Group; the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project; the Immigrant Advocacy & Litigation Center; and professors from Harvard Law School, the University of Michigan Law School, and the University of California, Irvine School of Law are representing Ramirez. The Justice Department is representing the DHS.

The case is Ramirez Medina v. Dep’t of Homeland Sec., W.D. Wash., No. 2:17-cv-00218, notice of appeal filed 12/6/19.