On Monday, the Supreme Court dealt the Trump administration a setback by forcing them to continue the protections given to ‘Dreamers’ by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, initiated by former President Barack Obama in 2012.
The justices refused to listen to the appeal by the administration of the nationwide injunction, issued on 9 January by a federal judge, which halted the decision by President Donald Trump to end the program that benefits young undocumented immigrants who came to the US while they were legal minors. The protections were set to end from next month, a decision announced by the President in September 2017.
700,000 young undocumented immigrants of predominantly Hispanic descent have been protected by the deferred action program and given permits allowing them to work legally in the US for renewable, two-year periods. Despite being given six months to come to a more permanent solution by President Trump, Congress has failed so far to pass any legislation to address their fate, such as offering them a pathway to US citizenship.
In California, last month, US District Judge, William Alsup, ruled that the government must continue to process renewals of existing deferred action applicants until a resolution on litigation of the issue has been resolved. The Trump administration elected to take the issue to the Supreme Court, rather than to a federal appeals court, but the Supreme Court has declined to hear it, expecting the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to handle it.