Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-587_5ifl.pdf
Page Number: 25

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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY v. 
REGENTS OF UNIV. OF CAL. 
Opinion of the Court 

But there is more to DAPA (and DACA) than such bene-
fits.  The defining feature of deferred action is the decision 
to defer removal (and to notify the affected alien of that de-
cision).  See App. to Pet. for Cert. 99a.  And the Fifth Circuit 
was careful to distinguish that forbearance component from
eligibility for benefits.  As it explained, the “challenged por-
tion  of  DAPA’s  deferred-action  program”  was  the  decision 
to make DAPA recipients eligible for benefits.  See Texas, 
809 F. 3d, at 168, and n. 108.  The other “[p]art of DAPA,”
the  court  noted,  “involve[d]  the  Secretary’s  decision—at
least temporarily—not to enforce the immigration laws as
to a class of what he deem[ed] to be low-priority illegal al-
iens.”  Id.,  at  166.  Borrowing  from  this  Court’s  prior  de-
scription of deferred action, the Fifth Circuit observed that
“the states do not challenge the Secretary’s decision to ‘de-
cline to institute proceedings, terminate proceedings, or de-
cline to execute a final order of deportation.’ ”  Id., at 168 
(quoting Reno, 525 U. S., at 484).  And the Fifth Circuit un-
derscored that nothing in its decision or the preliminary in-
junction “requires the Secretary to remove any alien or to
alter” the Secretary’s class-based “enforcement priorities.” 
Texas,  809  F.  3d,  at  166,  169.    In  other  words,  the  Secre-
tary’s forbearance authority was unimpaired. 

Acting Secretary Duke recognized that the Fifth Circuit’s
holding addressed the benefits associated with DAPA.  In 
her memorandum she explained that the Fifth Circuit con-

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Security and Medicare benefits because they had been designated “law-
fully present.” Texas, 809 F. 3d, at 168.  Lawful presence is a statutory 
prerequisite  for  receipt  of  certain  benefits.    See  id.,  at  148  (citing  8 
U. S. C. §1611).  It is not the same as forbearance nor does it flow inexo-
rably from forbearance.  Thus, while deferred action recipients have been
designated lawfully present for purposes of Social Security and Medicare 
eligibility, see 8 CFR §1.3; 42 CFR §417.422(h), agencies can also exclude
them from this designation, see 45 CFR §152.2(8) (2019) (specifying that
DACA recipients are not considered lawfully present for purposes of cov-
erage under the Affordable Care Act).