Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Supreme Court Rejects Trump Bid to End Protections for 'Dreamers'
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
June 18, 2020

Share

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected President Donald Trump’s effort to end legal protections for 650,000 young immigrants, a stunning rebuke to the president in the midst of his reelection campaign.
For now, those immigrants retain their protection from deportation and their authorization to work in the United States.

For now, those immigrants retain their protection from deportation and their authorization to work in the United States.
The 5-4 outcome, in which Chief Justice John Roberts and the four liberal justices were in the majority, seems certain to elevate the issue in Trump’s campaign, given the anti-immigrant rhetoric of his first presidential run in 2016 and immigration restrictions his administration has imposed since then. It was the second big liberal victory at the court this week, following Monday’s ruling that it’s illegal to fire people because they’re gay or transgender.
The justices rejected administration arguments that the 8-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program is illegal and that courts have no role to play in reviewing the decision to end DACA.
Trump’s first reaction came on Twitter, where he retweeted a comment incorporating a line from Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissenting opinion in which Thomas called the ruling “an effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision.”
Roberts wrote for the court that the administration did not pursue the end of the program properly.
“We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,“ Roberts wrote. “We address only whether the agency 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.”

DACA Recipents Elated by the Ruling

The Department of Homeland Security can try again, he wrote. But any new order to end the program, and the legal challenge it would provoke, would take months, if not longer, immigration experts said.
The court’s four conservative justices dissented. Justice Thomas, in a dissent joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, wrote that DACA was illegal from the moment it was created under the Obama administration in 2012.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a separate dissent that he was satisfied that the administration acted appropriately in trying to end the program.
DACA recipents were elated by the ruling.
“We’ll keep living our lives in the meantime,” said Cesar Espinosa, who leads the Houston immigration advocacy group FIEL. “We’re going to continue to work, continue to advocate.”
Espinosa said he got little sleep overnight in anticipation of a possible decision Thursday. In the minutes since the decision was posted, he said his group was “flooded with calls with Dreamers, happy, with that hope that they’re going to at least be in this country for a while longer.”
From the Senate floor, the Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said of the DACA decision, “I cried tears of joy.”
“Wow,” he went on, choking up. “These kids, these families, I feel for them, and I think all of America does.

Rep. Costa: ‘Big Win for Our Dreamers’

“This is (a) big win for our Dreamers. But the fight is not over,” said Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno). “We must work to pass comprehensive immigration reform so we have a legal process for those who want to stay and continue to contribute to our country in meaningful ways. These young people should not have to live in fear of being ripped away from their families and for many, the only home they have ever known.”

Program Grew Out of Impasse Over a Comprehensive Immigration Bill

DACA covers people who have been in the United States since they were children and are in the country illegally. In some cases, they have no memory of any home other than the U.S.

The program grew out of an impasse over a comprehensive immigration bill between Congress and the Obama administration in 2012. President Barack Obama decided to formally protect people from deportation while also allowing them to work legally in the U.S.
The program grew out of an impasse over a comprehensive immigration bill between Congress and the Obama administration in 2012. President Barack Obama decided to formally protect people from deportation while also allowing them to work legally in the U.S.
But Trump made tough talk on immigration a central part of his campaign and less than eight months after taking office, he announced in September 2017 that he would end DACA.
Immigrants, civil rights groups, universities and Democratic-led states quickly sued, and courts put the administration’s plan on hold.
The Department of Homeland Security has continued to process two-year DACA renewals so that hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients have protections stretching beyond the election and even into 2022.
The Supreme Court fight over DACA played out in a kind of legal slow motion. The administration first wanted the justices to hear and decide the case by June 2018. The justices said no. The Justice Department returned to the court later in 2018, but the justices did nothing for more than seven months before agreeing a year ago to hear arguments. Those took place in November and more than seven months elapsed before the court’s decision.
Thursday’s ruling was the second time in two years that Roberts and the liberal justices faulted the administration for the way it went about a policy change. Last year, the court forced the administration to back off a citizenship question on the 2020 census.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Trump Says Putin May Not Want Peace and May Need to Be ‘Dealt With Differently’

DON'T MISS

Is It Bad to Chew Gum All Day?

DON'T MISS

Dollar Doubts Dominate Gathering of Global Economic Leaders

DON'T MISS

US Judge Temporarily Stops West Texas Immigrant Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act

DON'T MISS

Shedeur Sanders’ Long Wait Ends When Browns Take Him in the 5th Round of the NFL Draft

DON'T MISS

Only About Half of Republicans Say Trump Has Focused on the Right Priorities

DON'T MISS

ICE Deports the Mother of an Infant and a 2-Year-Old Who Is a US Citizen

DON'T MISS

Israeli Airstrike Kills 10 People, Half of Them Children

DON'T MISS

Shedeur Sanders Is Still Waiting for a Call as the NFL Draft Enters the Final Day

DON'T MISS

Israel’s AI Experiments in the War in Gaza Raise Ethical Concerns

UP NEXT

Only About Half of Republicans Say Trump Has Focused on the Right Priorities

UP NEXT

Israeli Airstrike Kills 10 People, Half of Them Children

UP NEXT

Shedeur Sanders Is Still Waiting for a Call as the NFL Draft Enters the Final Day

UP NEXT

Israel’s AI Experiments in the War in Gaza Raise Ethical Concerns

UP NEXT

Paul Skenes Strikes Out 9, Wins Duel With Yamamoto in Pirates’ Victory Over Dodgers

UP NEXT

Eovaldi Outlasts Verlander as Rangers Beat Giants

UP NEXT

Rams Take Oregon Tight End Terrance Ferguson in Second Round After Trading Out of First

UP NEXT

The Latest: Francis Is Remembered as a ‘Pope Among the People’ as He Is Laid to Rest

UP NEXT

Trump Now Doubts Putin Wants to End Ukraine War, a Day After Saying a Deal Was Close

UP NEXT

Virginia Giuffre, Voice in Epstein Sex Trafficking Scandal, Dies at 41

US Judge Temporarily Stops West Texas Immigrant Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act

5 hours ago

Shedeur Sanders’ Long Wait Ends When Browns Take Him in the 5th Round of the NFL Draft

6 hours ago

Only About Half of Republicans Say Trump Has Focused on the Right Priorities

9 hours ago

ICE Deports the Mother of an Infant and a 2-Year-Old Who Is a US Citizen

9 hours ago

Israeli Airstrike Kills 10 People, Half of Them Children

9 hours ago

Shedeur Sanders Is Still Waiting for a Call as the NFL Draft Enters the Final Day

9 hours ago

Israel’s AI Experiments in the War in Gaza Raise Ethical Concerns

9 hours ago

Paul Skenes Strikes Out 9, Wins Duel With Yamamoto in Pirates’ Victory Over Dodgers

10 hours ago

Eovaldi Outlasts Verlander as Rangers Beat Giants

10 hours ago

Rams Take Oregon Tight End Terrance Ferguson in Second Round After Trading Out of First

10 hours ago

Trump Says Putin May Not Want Peace and May Need to Be ‘Dealt With Differently’

President Donald Trump said Saturday that Russia’s escalating bombardment of Ukraine had left him concerned that Russia did not want to end ...

4 hours ago

4 hours ago

Trump Says Putin May Not Want Peace and May Need to Be ‘Dealt With Differently’

4 hours ago

Is It Bad to Chew Gum All Day?

4 hours ago

Dollar Doubts Dominate Gathering of Global Economic Leaders

5 hours ago

US Judge Temporarily Stops West Texas Immigrant Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act

6 hours ago

Shedeur Sanders’ Long Wait Ends When Browns Take Him in the 5th Round of the NFL Draft

9 hours ago

Only About Half of Republicans Say Trump Has Focused on the Right Priorities

9 hours ago

ICE Deports the Mother of an Infant and a 2-Year-Old Who Is a US Citizen

9 hours ago

Israeli Airstrike Kills 10 People, Half of Them Children

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend