Court asked to stop DACA ruling

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration Thursday night took the unusual step of asking the Supreme Court to immediately review and overturn a judge’s ruling that said the administration may not dismantle a program that provides work permits to undocumented immigrants raised in the United States.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco asked the court to add the case to its docket this term. That would be unusual because the justices usually wait for an appeals court to act before accepting a case and because it is late in the game for the court to add cases to its oral argument calendar which ends in April.

Whether Congress and the White House can come up with a legislative compromise on what is called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is one of the complicating factors in the current debate on a funding proposal to keep the government operating.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ruled that California and other plaintiffs had shown they were likely to succeed on their claims that the Trump administration’s revocation of the nearly six-year-old program was “capricious” and not in compliance with federal laws.

He ordered the government to resume renewing DACA and work authorizations for the 690,000 immigrants who held that status on Sept. 5.