In a blow to one of Donald Trump’s biggest campaign promises, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on Thursday ruled that the Trump administration could not push forward with its plans to shut down the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects more than 700,000 young immigrants from deportation.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts penned the 5-4 majority opinion, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor. The ruling stated that while the court does not make judgement of whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies, it has the power to ensure that the government “complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action”.
Established by President Barack Obama in 2012, DACA allows young people brought to the United States illegally as children to stay on and work there without being deported on a two-year renewable term. The young immigrants are called ‘Dreamers’, named after the DREAM Act, that would have provided similar protections, but never passed Congress. As of March 31, 2020, 640,000 people have active DACA status, and since its inception, more than 825,000 people have utilized the program.
In September 2017, Trump announced his decision to end DACA, arguing that it was an “abuse of executive power” by President Obama, and that the “unlawful and unconstitutional” program “could not be successfully defended in court”. In Thursday’s ruling, Justice Roberts pointed out that while terminating DACA in itself was not unconstitutional, the way the Trump administration did so was “arbitrary and capricious”. He asserted that just saying that DACA was unconstitutional, without any concrete policy reasons to justify its cancellation was inadequate, and that the government had failed to consider the economic impact of excluding DACA recipients from the workforce.
This is the second time this week that the Supreme Court has ruled against the Trump administration. On Monday, it protected LGBTQ Americans, saying that the country’s Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, should be understood to include sexual orientation and gender identity as well.
Following the latest ruling, Trump immediately criticized the DACA decision on Twitter, saying: “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”. He claimed that the move was not “based on the law” and asserted that new Justices were needed on the Supreme Court. He vowed to keep trying to end the program, tweeting, “now we have to start this process all over again.”
In a dissent in the DACA case, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, along with Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, said that the majority had been swayed by sympathy and politics. Thomas wrote: “Today’s decision must be recognized for what it is: an effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision.” He said that “the court could have made clear that the solution respondents seek must come from the legislative branch” but instead, “it has given the green light for future political battles to be fought in this court rather than where they rightfully belong — the political branches.”
Former President Barack Obama praised the decision, tweeting that eight years ago, “we protected young people who were raised as part of our American family from deportation. Today, I’m happy for them, their families, and all of us. We may look different and come from everywhere, but what makes us American are our shared ideals”. He added that “now to stand up for those ideals, we have to move forward and elect @JoeBiden and a Democratic Congress that does its job, protects DREAMers, and finally creates a system that’s truly worthy of this nation of immigrants once and for all”.
Image Source: ABC News
SCOTUS Blocks Trump from Ending DACA
In response, Trump vowed to “start this process all over again”.
June 19, 2020
