Supreme Court rejects Trump administration’s attempt to take strip protections for undocumented children
The Supreme Court made the ruling on Thursday in a 5-4 decision to stop Trump administration from 'winding down' the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program
The Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to end a program that protects nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children.
The high court made the ruling on Thursday in a 5-4 decision to stop Trump administration from ‘winding down’ the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, announced by President Barack Obama in 2012 to protect ‘dreamers’ from deportation.
Nearly 800,000 people have participated in the program, which provides a chance for those enrolled to work legally in the US as long as they have a clean record and follow the law.
Chief Justice John Roberts, the sole conservative to join the court’s four liberals, wrote the decision – which was the second major defeat for the Trump administration this week after the Supreme Court ruled that LGBT workers are protected under the Civil Rights Act.
‘We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,’ Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
‘”The wisdom” of those decisions “is none of our concern.” We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provided a reasoned explanation for its action.’
In a concurring opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the Trump administration’s attempts seemed to have been fueled by ‘animus.’
‘President Trump’s 2017 statement comparing undocumented immigrants to “animals” responsible for “the drugs, the gangs, the cartels, the crisis of smuggling and trafficking, (and) MS13…Taken together, “the words of the President” help to “create the strong perception” that the rescission decision was “contaminated by impermissible discriminatory animus,’ she wrote.
Trump has since responded to the ruling, retweeting a tweet featuring Justice Clarence Thomas, who rote that the decision is ‘an effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision’ in his dissent.
The Trump administration could attempt to dismantle the program again, but they will have to provide a better explanation for their reason for termination.
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