The Washington Post: "Supreme Court blocks Trump’s bid to end DACA, a win for undocumented 'dreamers'"

The Supreme Court today rejected the Trump administration's attempt to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to United States as children from removal (commonly called deportation) and provides them work permission. This decision provides a reprieve, if only temporary, for nearly 650,000 recipients commonly referred to as “Dreamers.” Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. wrote the 5-to-4 decision and he was joined by the court’s four liberals.  

The opinion reasoned that the administration’s attempt in 2017 to rescind DACA, was “arbitrary and capricious” and Chief Justice Roberts said the administration did not follow the required procedures in their attempt to end the program. Roberts said that the court is not deciding “whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies.” Instead, Roberts wrote: “We address only whether the [Department of Homeland Security] complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action. Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients. That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner.”

President Trump tweeted his anger about the decision: “These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives. We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!”

Over the past two years, the Trump administration has tried to “wind down” the DACA program, announced by President Barack Obama originally in 2012. An estimated 800,000 individuals over the years have participated in the DACA program, which allows enrollees to work legally in the United States or attend school as long as meet certain requirements. More than ninety percent of DACA recipients are employed and forty-five percent are in school, according to one government study.   

Xavier Becerra, California attorney general, who led the coalition of twenty states and the District of Columbia in the fight against the recession of the program, said ending DACA “would have been cruel to the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who call America home, and it would have been bad for our nation’s health.”  Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), cautioned: “Despite this great news, and our exhilaration about the decision, the Court has made clear that the President has both the power to continue the program and the power to terminate if he follows the correct legal process. For the sake of not only Dreamers but our nation, this legal limbo must end. AILA urges Congress to act immediately and pass permanent protection for Dreamers once and for all.” 

AUGUST 10, 2020: Although in June the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's attempt to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, in late July a senior administration official stated the government will not accept new DACA applications and will only issue one-year DACA renewals (compared to previously issued two-year renewals) while the administration reviews the DACA program. This move is expected to face new legal challenges. "The courts have spoken: DACA is in full effect, including for new applications,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra stated. “We know what it takes to defend DACA — we've done it before and we'll do it again if necessary.”

The administration also said the government would reject all advance parole applications (for international travel) unless there are "extenuating circumstances." The Migration Policy Institute, a think tank, estimated about 66,000 undocumented immigrants could be eligible to apply for DACA if the administration accepts new applications. We will continue to provide updates about the DACA program as we receive them.