DACA Case Returns to Fifth Circuit as Uncertainty Looms for 535,000 Recipients

Any decision will likely be appealed to the nation’s highest court.

Roberto Martinez, a DACA recipient, speaks outside the Supreme Court after the nation's highest court blocked President Donald Trump from ending the program, in Washington on June 18, 2020. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A federal appeals court will hear arguments on a high-stakes case that could determine whether hundreds of thousands of people will lose their ability to work and remain in the United States.

On Oct. 10, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will revisit the case challenging Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which since 2012 has shielded more than 830,000 people who came to the United States illegally as children from deportation and provided them with renewable work permits.