THIS IS A GOOD MORNING! The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this morning (Feb. 26) that DACA will remain in effect. Donald Trump's arbitrary deadline of March 5 is thus null and void.
Time to celebrate? Yes! But then it is back to work. The fight over the legality of the Obama-era Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program isn't over.
The High Court turned down an attempt by the Trump administration to skip over the appeals process and go directly to the Justices to keep the March 5 deadline in effect.
By rejecting that effort, the case goes back to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals where the legal process could take up months before a verdict is rendered. It could be year before the Department of Justice can reappeal to the Supreme Court, where the conservative justices still hold the majority.
Massachusetts Attorney General Erick Schneiderman issued this Tweet:
In the meantime, the 700,000 to 800,000 DACA participants, young people who were brought into the U.S. by their undocumented parents, can breathe a sigh of relief. The month of March won't be the end of their world, after all.
The vast majority of DACA recipients are from Mexico. But there are also thousands of people from China, India, South Korea and the Philippines who would lose their protection and may be deported.
The vast majority of DACA recipients are from Mexico. But there are also thousands of people from China, India, South Korea and the Philippines who would lose their protection and may be deported.
The SCOTUS ruling allows Dreamers to continue to renew their DACA status but new applications are still not being accepted.
Trump's administration had taken the unusual step of appealing directly to the U.S. Supreme Court a January 9 nationwide injunction by San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who ruled that the DACA program must remain in place while the litigation is resolved.
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.
In issuing his temporary order, which extends the DACA protection while the lawsuit goes forward, Alsup said the "public interest" would be served by keeping the program in place. The judge pointed to Trump tweets that suggested he actually supported DACA. A September tweet read: "Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really! ... ."
Alsup wrote: "We seem to be in the unusual position wherein the ultimate authority over the agency, the chief executive, publicly favors the very program the agency has ended."
On February 13, a second US judge issued a similar injunction ordering the Trump administration to keep DACA in place. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn ruled in a lawsuit brought by plaintiffs including a group of states led by New York.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah issued the following statement after the Supreme Court’s decision:
The DACA program — which provides work permits and myriad government benefits to illegal immigrants en masse — is clearly unlawful. The district judge’s decision unilaterally to re-impose a program that Congress had explicitly and repeatedly rejected is a usurpation of legislative authority. The fact that this occurs at a time when elected representatives in Congress are actively debating this policy only underscores that the district judge has unwisely intervened in the legislative process. We look forward to having this case expeditiously heard by the appeals court and, if necessary, the Supreme Court, where we fully expect to prevail.The SCOTUS action leaves open the possibility that the justices could consider the San Francisco case after the 9th Circuit appeals court hears it.
Trump repealed Obama's executive order creating the DACA program last September hoping that Congress would find a legislative solution to the Dreamers situation and gave the U.S. Senate until March 5 to fix it.
Congress was unable to find a bipartisan solution and found itself mired in the broader question of immigration reform. They left the DACA question unresolved by rejecting two bipartisan proposals, a conservative counterproposal and Trump's own immigration reform plan before they recessed for a week. They return this week to renew the debate.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan told reporters earlier this month that the March 5 deadline was “not as important as it was before, given the court rulings.” However, he said, “I think this place works better with deadlines, and we want to operate on deadlines.”
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan told reporters earlier this month that the March 5 deadline was “not as important as it was before, given the court rulings.” However, he said, “I think this place works better with deadlines, and we want to operate on deadlines.”
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