Supreme Court gives hope to Dreamers

WHITE House efforts to end a scheme protecting young illegal immigrants from deportation suffered a setback after the US Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Donald Trump’s administration had moved to end the living and working rights of 800,000 people brought to the United States as children, but that measure had been blocked by the lower courts. The administration attempted to bypass further debate in the lower courts by urging the Supreme Court to step in and end the deadlock over the status of the so-called “Dreamers”.

But the highest court declined, throwing into further confusion an already complex debate over reforms to the US immigration system. The Dreamers are protected from deportation by the Deferred Action for Child- hood Arrivals (DACA) programme.

The latest legal decision means the case will now have to work its way fully through the lower courts before any Supreme Court ruling is possible.

White House officials re-iterated their position that DACA was “clearly unlawful”. Democrats welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision, but said a full resolution was still needed.