Supreme Court rejects Trump over 'Dreamers'

The US Supreme Court yesterday dealt a setback to President Donald Trump, requiring his administration to maintain protections he has sought to end for hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally into the United States as children.

The justices refused to hear the administration’s appeal of a federal judge’s January 9 injunction that halted Trump’s move to rescind a program that benefits immigrants known as “Dreamers” implemented in 2012 by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama. Under Trump’s action, the protections were due to start phasing out beginning in March.

In a brief order, the justices did not explain their reasoning, but said the appeal was “denied without prejudice,” indicating they will maintain an open mind on the underlying legal issue still being considered by a lower court. The high court also said it expects that appeals court to “proceed expeditiously to decide this case.”

Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, roughly 700,000 young adult, mostly Hispanics, are granted protect from deportation and given work permits for two-year periods, after which they must re-apply. About 1.8 million people are eligible for the program, a sizable fraction of the more than 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.

Trump’s administration had appealed the January 9 nationwide injunction by San Francisco-based US District Judge William Alsup, who ruled that the DACA program must remain in place while the litigation is resolved.

In an unusual move, the administration appealed directly to the Supreme Court instead of going first to a federal appeals court.

Alsup ruled that the challengers, including the states of California, Maine, Maryland and Minnesota and Obama’s former homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano, were likely to succeed in arguing that the administration’s decision to end DACA was arbitrary.

Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a statement that the administration will continue to defend the Department of Homeland Security’s “lawful authority to wind down DACA in an orderly manner.”

O’Malley said that “while we were hopeful for a different outcome,” the high court rarely agrees to take up cases before a lower court has ruled, “though in our view it was warranted for the extraordinary injunction requiring the Department of Homeland Security to maintain DACA.”

The DACA dispute is the second major case the Supreme Court will hear in the coming months arising from Trump’s immigration policies. The justices are due to hear arguments in April on the legality of his latest travel ban order barring entry to people from several Muslim-majority nations.

Congress so far has failed to pass legislation to address the fate of the “Dreamers,” including a potential path to citizenship.

Trump’s move to rescind DACA prompted legal challenges by Democratic state attorneys general and various organizations and individuals in multiple federal courts. His administration argued that Obama exceeded his powers under the Constitution when he bypassed Congress and created DACA.