TRUMP ADMINISTRATION RETURNS TO SUPREME COURT, SEEKING END TO DACA
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION RETURNS TO SUPREME COURT, SEEKING END TO DACA
November 5, 2018
Kevin Daley
The Trump administration returned to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday night seeking to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama-era amnesty initiative that extends protected status to illegal aliens brought to the U.S. as children.
The move is aggressive and unusual, as decisions on Trump’s efforts to rescind DACA are still pending in several federal appeals courts, and the justices seldom take up cases before those judgments issue. But the U.S. Department of Justice told the Supreme Court Monday that action is needed in the near term.
The Trump administration previously sought the Supreme Court’s review of its efforts to phase out DACA. After two federal judges issued injunctions requiring the government to continue administering the program, the Justice Department bypassed normal appellate procedure and went directly to the Supreme Court on Jan. 18 to vindicate its right to terminate the program.
The justices rejected that request on Feb. 26, but asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to quickly process the case so it could return to the high court in a reasonable timeframe. Other challenges to DACA repeal efforts are currently before appeals courts in New York and Washington, D.C.
“It is assumed that the Court of Appeals will proceed expeditiously to decide this case,” the Supreme Court’s February order read. No decision has since come from the circuit courts.
In a letter attending the government’s petition, Solicitor General Noel Francisco explained that the high court should take the cases now — even though the appeals courts have yet to render decisions on the matter — to ensure the justices can resolve the dispute during the current term.
“As this Court’s previous order recognized, prompt consideration of these cases is essential,” the letter reads. “By virtue of the district courts’ orders, DHS is being required to maintain a discretionary policy of non-enforcement sanctioning an ongoing violation of federal law by more than half a million individuals.”
“Yet, absent prompt intervention from this Court, there is little chance this dispute will be resolved for at least another year,” the letter adds.
https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-con...protestors.jpgPaulina Ruiz chants with supporters of the DACA program on Olivera Street in Los Angeles, California. REUTERS/Kyle Grillot
On the merits of the dispute, the Trump administration contends that its decision to terminate DACA cannot be reviewed in court, since the program exists entirely at the executive branch’s discretion. Even if its termination decision is reviewable, they continue, it is still reasonable and lawful.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights denounced the move as an “election eve stunt.”
“The day before an election that will have huge implications for this administration, Sessions and his department have shamelessly asked the Supreme Court to bypass the appellate courts in their quest to end DACA,” said Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference. “This administration is in a rush to pull the rug out from under Dreamers and subject them to deportation. This extraordinary move is blatantly cruel to immigrant youth who call this country their home and contribute to their communities.”
“The Supreme Court must reject this politically motivated and unnecessary request,” she added.
DACA extends temporary legal status to approximately 700,000 migrants, and allows them to obtain work permits.
https://dailycaller.com/2018/11/05/s...rt-daca-trump/
Justice Department asks Supreme Court to hear DACA cases this term
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Monday, November 5, 2018
The administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to immediately take up cases challenging President Trump’s phaseout of the Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty for illegal immigrant “Dreamers,” saying it’s critical the justices hear the matter this term.
Though the cases are still pending before a number of lower federal appeals courts, Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco told the justices that waiting on decisions would mean the issue would be pushed for at least a year.
That, he said, would leave in place an “unlawful” DACA program that Mr. Trump and his advisers have concluded must go.
Mr. Francisco said the justices earlier this year turned down a previous attempt to rush the case to them, but did say they wanted the appeals courts to move quickly.
“More than eight months ago, this court recognized that this dispute called for an expeditious resolution. That is even more evident today,” he wrote in his petition. “The court should grant review in these cases and ensure that it can provide a timely and definitive resolution of the dispute this term.”
Mr. Trump and his aides in September 2017 announced a phaseout of DACA, allowing people in the program to serve out the remainder of their two-year work permits and stays of deportation, but limiting renewals.
A flurry of lawsuits ensued.
Courts in Washington, D.C., New York and California ruled the phaseout illegal, saying the administration cut too many corners, didn’t explain the decision and, according to one of the judges, was “heartless” toward the illegal immigrants who benefit from DACA.
Each of those rulings has been appealed, and in the meantime DACA remains in effect — though no new applications are allowed.
Complicating matters is another ruling from a court in Texas, which found the original DACA program, announced in 2012, is likely illegal.
That’s left a morass where the amnesty is against the law, but so is the effort to end it.
Immigrant-rights advocates said the administration’s effort to speed the cases to the high court are “cruel.”
Tom Jawetz, vice president of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, called on the justices to refuse.
“DACA has been a great benefit to the nation, and the evidence demonstrates that the program works,” he said.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...r-daca-cases-/
