The United States Supreme Court has declined to hear the Trump administration's case for ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
By declining to hear the case, the Supreme Court is upholding lower federal court rulings allowing the Obama-era program to continue. Upwards of 1.9 million young people are eligible for coverage under the program.
In September 2017, President Donald Trump abruptly reversed the executive order that created DACA by former President Obama. This put nearly 700,000 children of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States by their parents at risk of deportation.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) described Trump's move as " one of the ugliest and cruelest decisions ever made by a president in our modern history."
Today's Supreme Court decision, which came without comment from the nation's highest court, will allow DACA recipients, known as Dreamers, to continue to apply for and renew their participation in and protection under the program. Trump's initial move granted a 6-month extension on the program, which is set to expire on March 5th, 2018. Under Trump's executive order, Dreamers who did not meet the March 5th deadline risked losing DACA protections.
As Matthew SNOWFLAKE AF pointed out, the administration's case was "an attempt by Trump to circumvent the 9th Circuit Court," which issued a stay on ending the program.
Indeed it was. Trump slammed the 9th Circuit Court on Monday, telling a room full of governors at the White House, "you know, we tried to get it moved quickly 'cause we'd like to help DACA. I think everybody in this room wants to help with DACA, but the Supreme Court just ruled that it has to go through the normal channels, so it's going back in."
But as CNN reported on Monday, "the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has generally allowed nationwide injunctions against the Trump administration actions from lower court judges under this President to stand, meaning the DACA program could be spared a year or more until the Supreme Court could take up the case in next year's term, given the likely realities of the calendar."
Trump has also called for any deal on DACA to include a border wall with Mexico.
The irony here is rich, considering it was Trump himself who put the entire program in jeopardy in the first place.
Supporters of DACA, as well as Dreamers, were elated with the news. Dreams are millions of young people, from students, military service members, and parents whose children are US citizens, to business owners. Many of them have social security numbers and all of them pay taxes.
Enthusiasm abounded on Twitter following the ruling, and even included jabs at Trump's most extreme supporters.
Today's decision was a major blow to Trump and his extreme and wildly unpopular stance on rewriting US immigration policy.
As Suresh Babu points out, "again and again, the judiciary has to intervene to check presidential power because the GOP-led Congress is unable to act (almost like it did not exist). This DACA decision is significant."
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