On June 18, the US Supreme Court blocked the attempt of the Trump administration to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA. It is a program created during Obama's era that protects thousands of immigrants from deportation since they were brought to the United States when they were children.
Supreme Court rules in favor of DACA
The ruling was 5-4 and it was written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Justices Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer.
Chief Justice John Roberts sided again with the liberals on the topic of immigration, he was also the one who provided the deciding vote to uphold Obamacare that the Trump administration also wants abolished. This is the second time this week that the Supreme Court has ruled against the Trump administration.
On June 15, the court sided with the LGBTQ community after the Trump administration tried to make it legal for companies to fire people based on their sexual orientation. But the court made it clear that the LGBTQ community in the country is protected under the Civil Rights Act.
The ruling written by Chief Justice John Roberts emphasizes that the Trump administration failed to provide a reason to justify the ending of the DACA program.
President Donald Trump tweeted that the Supreme Court "does not like him" and he retweeted a tweet featuring Justice Clarence Thomas' dissent.Trump also wrote that the Supreme Court's decision on LGBTQ workers and the DACA program are horrible and politically charged.
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Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama tweeted that he is happy for the DACA recipients, their families, and for all Americans. He also noted that the program was created eight years ago this week.
According to Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr from Cornell Law School, this celebration is just temporary since the Trump administration might move again and may come up with a better explanation to convince the Supreme Court to abolish the program.
What is the DACA program?
The DACA program was established in 2012. It is a program that protects all undocumented immigrants who came to the United States under the age of 16, who had lived in the United States since at least 2007, who had attended high school and graduated in the country and had no offenses on record.
The DACA recipients are also called "Dreamers" and the program prevents them from being deported since they came to the country as a child and the United States is the only country that they can call home. The "Dreamers" are eligible for renewable. two-year grants of deferred action from removal.
They were also eligible for social security numbers and work authorization. In return, they had to provide the government with certain identifying information.
After Trump became the president, Jeff Sessions, who was the Attorney General in 2016, announced that the program was created without proper authority and only after Congress had rejected proposed legislation.
Elaine Duke, the Secretary of Homeland Security in 2016, announced that the program would be phased out due to legal and constitutional defects. However, federal courts intervened and stated that the Trump administration acted arbitrarily when phasing out DACA. The courts said that the justification was thin, and the Supreme Court decided to keep the program.
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