US Supreme Court rejects Trump over immigrant ‘Dreamers’

The US Supreme Court yesterday dealt a setback to President Donald Trump, telling his administration to maintain protections he has sought to end for hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally into the United States as children.

The justices refused to hear the administration’s appeal of a federal judge’s injunction on January 9 that halted Mr Trump’s move to rescind a programme that benefits immigrants, known as “Dreamers”. The programme was implemented in 2012 by Barack Obama.

The protections were due to start phasing out from next month under Mr Trump’s action, which was announced in September.

Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) programme, about 700,000 young adults are protected from deportation and given work permits for two-year periods, after which they must re-apply. Congress so far has failed to pass legislation to address the fate of the Dreamers, including a potential path to citizenship.

San Francisco district judge William Alsup ruled last month that Daca must remain in place while litigation over the legality of Mr Trump’s action is resolved, prompting the administration’s unusual appeal, bypassing a federal appeals court and going directly to the Supreme Court.

“The Daca programme – which provides work permits and myriad government benefits to illegal immigrants en masse – is clearly unlawful.

“The district judge’s decision to unilaterally re-impose a programme that Congress had explicitly and repeatedly rejected is a usurpation of legislative authority,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said. “We look forward to having this case expeditiously heard by the appeals court and, if necessary, the Supreme Court, where we fully expect to prevail.”

The administration argued that Mr Obama exceeded his powers under the Constitution when he bypassed Congress and created Daca.

Judge Alsup ruled that the challengers, including the states of California, Maine, Maryland and Minnesota and Mr Obama’s former homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, were likely to succeed in arguing that the administration’s decision to end Daca was arbitrary.