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IMMIGRATION DECEMBER 19, 2025 | The Indian Eye 35

children, and to their educational in- cission would similarly “radiate out- ers who witness or experience labor cluded the grant of deferred action. It
stitutions and employers. wards” to impact families, schools, rights violations. Although the Fifth is hoped that the executive branch’s
Citing Regents, the court in and employers. The court also noted Circuit has also ruled that DACA ability to grant deferred action is pre-

A-C-R-, found that “USCIS failed that even state governments could be may not have been authorized under served as such a remedy is vital to fill
to consider reliance interests and impacted by the recission, as SIJ re- the INA, a final decision has yet to gaps under the immigration system
reasonably obvious alternatives cipients could become more reliant be made on the lawfulness of DACA that would otherwise leave vulner-
here, likely rendering its decision to on state child welfare programs and or other deferred action programs. able noncitizens subject to removal.
rescind SIJS-DA arbitrary and ca- benefits. Even the court in A-C-R- order ref- Even if the current Trump adminis-
pricious”. USCIS had advanced two A-C-R provides some hope that erenced the DACA decision, and tration is averse to deferred action,
justifications for not taking reliance deferred action programs can stay in expressed openness to the govern- it should be preserved for more en-
interests into consideration, first that place if the administration does not ment’s claim that its “questionable lightened, immigrant- friendly ad-
“the requirement to consider reli- take into consideration the reliance legality was likely reason enough for ministrations to provide ameliorative
ance interests does not apply when interests of the stakeholders. In ad- USCIS to seek to rescind the policy.” relief to vulnerable noncitizens in an
an agency ‘credibly believes that the dition to DACA and SIJ deferred The executive branch has always imperfect immigration system.
prior policy is a violation of the sepa- action, another program grants de- been able to grant deferred action, *Kaitlyn Box is a Partner
ration of powers doctrine’”, and, sec- ferred action to noncitizen work- and Congress has never explicitly pre- at Cyrus D. Mehta & Partners PLLC.
ond, that the reliance interests impli- ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
cated in SIJ deferred action were not
serious. The court did not find either Cyrus D. Mehta, a graduate of Cambridge University and Columbia Law School, is the Managing Partner of Cyrus D. Mehta & Part-
compelling. ners PLLC in New York City. Mr. Mehta is a member of AILA’s Administrative Litigation Task Force; AILA’s EB-5 Committee; former
In response to USCIS’ first jus- chair of AILA’s Ethics Committee; special counsel on immigration matters to the Departmental Disciplinary Committee, Appellate Di-
tification, the court noted that “an vision, First Department, New York; member of the ABA Commission on Immigration; board member of Volunteers for Legal Services
agency must always consider seri-
ous reliance interests, even when it and board member of New York Immigration Coalition. Mr. Mehta is the former chair of the Board of Trustees of the American Im-
concludes an earlier policy was un- migration Council and former chair of the Committee on Immigration and Nationality Law of the New York City Bar Association. He
lawful”. In response to the second is a frequent speaker and writer on various immigration-related issues, including on ethics, and is also an adjunct professor of law at
contention, the court noted that ju- Brooklyn Law School, where he teaches a course entitled Immigration and Work. Mr. Mehta received the AILA 2018 Edith Lowenstein
veniles with SIJ classification, like Memorial Award for advancing the practice of immigration law and the AILA 2011 Michael Maggio Memorial Award for his outstand-
DACA recipients, may have enrolled
in educational programs or begun ing efforts in providing pro bono representation in the immigration field. He has also received two AILA Presidential Commendations
careers in reliance on the program, in 2010 and 2016. Mr. Mehta is ranked among the most highly regarded lawyers in North America by Who’s Who Legal – Corporate
and that the consequences of the re- Immigration Law 2019 and is also ranked in Chambers USA and Chambers Global 2019 in immigration law, among other rankings.

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