Supreme Court blocks Trump effort to wind down DACA program

Supreme Court blocks Trump effort to wind down DACA program

June 18, 2020 / 10:07 AM

By Melissa Quinn

Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a blow to President Trump's immigration agenda, ruling the administration's attempt to dismantle an Obama-era program that protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation was unlawful.

With itsruling, the high court provided a lifeline to nearly 700,000 immigrants whose future in the United States hung in the balance while a yearslong legal battle over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program moved through the courts.


Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the opinion for the court.


This is a developing story and will be updated.


First published on June 18, 2020 / 10:07 AM

© 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme...ation-opinion/

Supreme Court rules Trump cannot end DACA in big win for 'Dreamer' legal immigrants

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A demonstrator holds a sign in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program outside of the Supreme Court on Nov. 12, 2019.Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images

June 18, 2020, 10:04 AM EDT

By Pete Williams

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration cannot carry out its plan to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has allowed nearly 800,000 young people, known as "Dreamers," to avoid deportation and remain in the U.S.

The decision is a big legal defeat for President Donald Trump on the issue of immigration, which has been a major focus of his domestic agenda.

The ruling said the government failed to give an adequate justification for ending the federal program. The administration could try again to shut it down by offering a more detailed explanation for its action, but the White House might not want to end such a popular program in the heat of a presidential campaign.


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'It's taking a huge emotional toll': Dreamers working in healthcare await Supreme Court decision

APRIL 12, 202005:40



Immigration lawyers told the Supreme Court after the case was argued last fall that frontline health care workers involved in responding to the coronavirus epidemic rely on about 27,000 DACA recipients, "including dentists, pharmacists, physician assistants, home health aides, technicians" and nearly 200 medical students.


"Termination of DACA during this national health emergency would be catastrophic," they said in an April 2 court filing. The Association of American Medical Colleges told the court last fall — well before the pandemic crisis — that the U.S. is unprepared "to fill the loss that would result if DACA recipients were excluded from the health care workforce."

The court said the Department of Homeland Security did not act properly when it ordered the program ended in 2017. In response to legal challenges, lower court rulings allowed DACA to keep going, letting young people in the program to reapply every two years and remain under its protection. Children of illegal immigrants were allowed to remain here if they were under 16 when their parents brought them to the U.S. and if they arrived by 2007.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...eamer-n1115116

Read opinion here:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinion...8-587_5ifl.pdf

Mark Krikorian Retweeted


David Harsanyi


@davidharsanyi


Democrat presidents can legislate by fiat as they please, but Republican presidents can't undo the same programs because Roberts doesn't like the reasons.

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Mark Krikorian Retweeted


Chantal Da Silva


@chantaladasilva



Supreme Court's ruling against Trump administration's bid to end DACA is a major blow president, victory for Dreamers. Ruling can be read here: https://supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-587_5ifl.pdf

Ryan James Girdusky


@RyanGirdusky


The only upside of this is it stops the efforts of the liberals in the administration who were hoping to use this decision to push for an amnesty

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Ed Whelan


@EdWhelanEPPC


Chief Justice writes majority opinion against DACA rescission. https://supremecourt.gov/opinions/19...ifl.pdf…
Show this thread


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Ryan James Girdusky


@RyanGirdusky



So the executive order of a past president cannot be rescind by the current president as if it were congressional legislation... what a stupid precedent

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SCOTUSblog



@SCOTUSblog



#SCOTUS rules against Trump administration in challenge to decision to end #DACA program, which allowed noncitizens brought to this country illegally as children to apply for protection from deportation, holding decision was arbitrary and capricious

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Ryan James Girdusky Retweeted


Daniel Horowitz

@RMConservative


To be clear, Trump can still go through another process to rescind it, but i doubt he will.


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Ryan James Girdusky


@RyanGirdusky


Roberts screwed over the country again

Quote Tweet


Ed Whelan


@EdWhelanEPPC


Chief Justice writes majority opinion against DACA rescission. https://supremecourt.gov/opinions/19...ifl.pdf…
Show this thread

Ryan James Girdusky Retweeted

Saagar Enjeti

@esaagar


Yeah, Roberts sucksBut if the administration had displayed basic legal competence from the very beginning on this and the census then this entire question is moot

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Kevin Daley


@KevinDaleyDC


The Supreme Court has blocked President Donald Trump's bid to rescind DACA. Chief Justice John Roberts delivers the 5-4 decision. #SCOTUS https://supremecourt.gov/opinions/19...ifl.pdf…


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Ryan James Girdusky Retweeted


Josh Hawley


@HawleyMO



The most disappointing week at #SCOTUS in years

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SCOTUSblog



@SCOTUSblog


#SCOTUS rules against Trump administration in challenge to decision to end #DACA program, which allowed noncitizens brought to this country illegally as children to apply for protection from deportation, holding decision was arbitrary and capricious


Show this thread



Ryan James Girdusky


@RyanGirdusky

36m



Right. This takes the winds out of the sails who believed this could have opened the door for a broader immigration plan... much of which would have been absolutely terrible

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Maggie Haberman



@maggieNYT


Trump advisers have been insisting Dems will “have to come to the table now.” Dems who support DACA have a decidedly different view of whether a president who, to make good on plan to end the program, will start deporting people brought here by families before Election Day. twitter.com/jordanfabian/s…

Ed Whelan


@EdWhelanEPPC

Chief Justice writes majority opinion against DACA rescission. https://supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-587_5ifl.pdf…

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Ed Whelan


@EdWhelanEPPC


5-4 divide against DACA rescission. Chief with liberals.


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Ed Whelan


@EdWhelanEPPC


In DACA case, Thomas dissents, joined by Alito and Gorsuch. Alito writes separate dissent, as does Kavanaugh.

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Ed Whelan


@EdWhelanEPPC

Thomas (joined by Alito and Gorsuch): Chief's opinion is "mystifying." DACA was unlawful from its inception. "The decision to countermand an unlawful agency action is clearly reasonable." Chief tries to "avoid a politically controversial but legally correctdecision."

10:10 AM · Jun 18, 2020·TweetDecK

Steve Deace


@SteveDeaceShow



Since Roe v Wade, majority Republican-appointed Supreme Courts have contributed more to the canceling of the Constitution than the Democratic Party could’ve hoped to achieve on its own. And yet judges are the number one reason conservatives have stuck with the GOP. Cruel irony.

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Josh Hammer



@josh_hammer

Conservatives: Always only two justices away from a Supreme Court majority.


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Josh Hammer Retweeted


David Harsanyi

@davidharsanyi


Roberts super strict on the paperwork re DACA. On Obamacare, the opposite.

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Josh Hammer Retweeted


Ben Shapiro


@benshapiro



One of the predictable consequences of this latest spate of horrendous SCOTUS decisions, on a court with 5 Republican appointees, is that voting GOP in the vain hope that they will appoint justices who will protect your rights, will rightly be seen as an insufficient rationale.


Show this thread

Josh Hammer

@josh_hammer


So an unconstitutional executive amnesty is OK but attempts to rescind that unconstitutional executive amnesty are not OK.There’s your big, bad “conservative” Supreme Court.

Supreme Court DACA decision: Justices rule against Trump bid to end Obama-era immigration program

June 18, 2020

Tucker Higgins


The Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump on Thursday in a set of cases over his effort to end the Obama-era immigration program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

The ruling will protect hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who have been shielded from deportation and allowed to receive work permits under the program. There were about 700,000 DACA recipients at the time Trump ordered the program to wind down in September 2017.

The 5-4 opinion was authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, and joined by the court’s liberals, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Roberts reasoned that the Trump administration’s termination of the program was “arbitrary and capricious,” in violation of federal law that governs administrative procedure.

“We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies. ‘The wisdom’ of those decisions ‘is none of our concern,’” 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,” Roberts added. “That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner.”

In a dissent joined by fellow conservatives Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the majority decision “must be recognized for what it is: an effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision.”

“Today the majority makes the mystifying determination that this rescission of DACA was unlawful. In reaching that conclusion, the majority acts as though it is engaging in the routine application of standard principles of administrative law. On the contrary, this is anything but a standard administrative law case,” Thomas wrote.

The ruling comes just days after the court ruled in favor of LGBT workers in a blockbuster gay rights case that held that employees may not be fired on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Gorsuch authored the opinion for the court in that case. He was joined by Roberts and the court’s liberals. The back-to-back wins for liberals are a surprising development from the court, which has 5-4 conservative majority.

The setback for the Trump administration comes less than five months before the 2020 election, where the president appears poised to pivot back to immigration as a central campaign issue.

In a Fox News interview Wednesday night, Trump said he will “soon” be traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border to tout the construction of a border wall. “I’m going to be at the wall very soon. We’re going to celebrate over 200 [miles built],” Trump said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who led a coalition of 20 states and D.C. defending DACA before the top court, said in a statement that “we prevailed on behalf of every Dreamer who has worked hard to help build our country — our neighbors, teachers, doctors, and first responders.”

“The highest court in our land saw through the Trump Administration’s illegal, baseless excuses. The court agreed: If you work hard and play by the rules, you deserve a chance to get ahead,” Becerra said.

Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after the decision was handed down that he “cried tears of joy.”

“These wonderful DACA kids and their families have a huge burden lifted off their shoulders. They don’t have to worry about being deported, they can do their jobs, and, I believe, I do believe this, someday, someday soon, they will be American citizens,” Schumer said.

DACA, and the young immigrants it shields known as “Dreamers,” are broadly popular among the public, and Trump had shied away from arguing against the program as a matter of policy.

A Politico/Morning Consult survey conducted earlier this month showed that a majority of those who voted for Trump in 2016
supported protecting Dreamers from deportation. Among registered voters overall, more than 75% said DACA recipients should be allowed to remain in the United States.

Rather than challenge the program on policy grounds, Trump and attorneys for his administration have argued that former President Barack Obama lacked the legal authority to implement the program in the first place.

On several occasions, Trump has floated the idea that he would seek a deal with Democrats on the immigration program if the Supreme Court allowed him to terminate it.

“Rest assured that if the SC does what all say it must, based on the law, a bipartisan deal will be made to the benefit of all,” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter last year, referring to the Supreme Court.

The administration’s argument that Obama lacked the authority to implement DACA did not hold up in lower courts. Trump’s efforts to halt the program were stopped by courts in New York, Washington, D.C., and California.

The cases are Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, No. 18-587, Donald Trump v. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, No. 18-588 and Kevin McAleenan v. Martin Jonathan Batalla Vidal, No. 18-589.

-- CNBC’s Dan Mangan and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.

This is breaking news. Check back for updates.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/18/supr...-dreamers.html

The "wonerful" DACA kids are not "kids" anymore and they need go home! Many have a criminal record, lied on their applications, or did not finish school. Obama had no right to award them "Deferred" Deportation. "Deferred" is over. Give them notice to go home with their entire family and terminate the work permits. They most certainly should NOT be getting home or auto loans from our banking institutions.

We have got to stop these criminal trespassing illegal aliens and their UACs coming here thinking they are going to get Amnesty #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, or a path to stay. Stop rewarding and start deporting.

DEALS do not work or we would NOT be on Amnesty #8.

They have a "home" to go back to with the relatives they left behind. That is a crock of BULL that they do not "know" their country or speak the language. That is NO basis to allow them to stay. These illegals pour over our border by the thousands to OUR country "they do not know and English they do not speak". Get them out of here and turn them all away at the border.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Beezer

The "wonerful" DACA kids are not "kids" anymore and they need go home! Many have a criminal record, lied on their applications, or did not finish school. Obama had no right to award them "Deferred" Deportation. "Deferred" is over. Give them notice to go home with their entire family and terminate the work permits. They most certainly should NOT be getting home or auto loans from our banking institutions.

We have got to stop these criminal trespassing illegal aliens and their UACs coming here thinking they are going to get Amnesty #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, or a path to stay. Stop rewarding and start deporting.

DEALS do not work or we would NOT be on Amnesty #8.

They have a "home" to go back to with the relatives they left behind. That is a crock of BULL that they do not "know" their country or speak the language. That is NO basis to allow them to stay. These illegals pour over our border by the thousands to OUR country "they do not know and English they do not speak". Get them out of here and turn them all away at the border.

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Unfortunately it looks like Trump isn't willing to enforce existing laws, and congress won't get around to allocating more enforcement budget. The House of Representatives has the "power of the purse" meaning any new enforcement laws or budgets have to pass the heavily democrat leaning house.

Any republican solution must be centered around gaining back control of the House of Representatives or all is lost.