Soon after the president announced these initiatives, Texas and 25 other states filed a lawsuit challenging them. In February 2015, a federal district court in Texas issued a nationwide order that put DAPA and expanded DACA on hold. The Obama administration quickly appealed this decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. On November 9, 2015, a divided panel of the Fifth Circuit issued a decision that affirms the Texas federal district court's order that temporarily blocks DAPA and expanded DACA from being implemented. On Friday, November 20, 2015 the Department of Justice filed its petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court, which subsequently granted certiorari on January 19th, 2016.
The Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) is a prosecutorial discretion program administered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on an individual applicant basis that provides temporary relief from deportation (called deferred action). Once an individual's application is approved for deferred action, they have the opportunity to apply for work authorization as unauthorized parents of U.S. citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs). The DAPA program resembles the DACA program in some important respects, but the eligibility criteria are distinct.