The Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump on Thursday in a set of cases over his effort to end the Obama-era immigration program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
The program shields certain young immigrants from deportation and allows them to receive work permits. There were about 700,000 DACA recipients at the time Trump ordered the program to wind down in September 2017.
DACA, and the young immigrants it shields known as “Dreamers,” are broadly popular among the public, and Trump has shied away from arguing against the program as a matter of policy.
The administration’s argument that Obama lacked the authority to implement DACA did not hold up in lower courts. Trump’s efforts to halt the program were stopped by courts in New York, Washington, D.C., and California.
The cases are Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, No. 18-587, Donald Trump v. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, No. 18-588 and Kevin McAleenan v. Martin Jonathan Batalla Vidal, No. 18-589.
*SUPREME COURT BLOCKS TRUMP FROM CANCELING OBAMA'S DACA PROGRAM
— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) June 18, 2020
BREAKING: SUPREME COURT SAYS TRUMP'S CANCELLATION OF DACA WAS ILLEGAL
Trump loses long battle to ditch Barack Obama's program shielding Dreamers from deportation.
Chief Justice Roberts writes.
— Steven Mazie (@stevenmazie) June 18, 2020