Why Trump’s immigration deadline is all but moot

Judge’s order freezes program; SCOTUS might not study issue till June

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump continues to warn of a looming March 5 deadline on immigration.

“March 5th is rapidly approaching and the Democrats are doing nothing about DACA. They Resist, Blame, Complain and Obstruct - and do nothing,” he tweeted Thursday. “Start pushing Nancy Pelosi and the Dems to work out a DACA fix, NOW!”

“We have a great chance to make a deal or, blame the Dems!” he added late. “March 5th is coming up fast.”

The facts

A recent court ruling leaves the March 5 deadline all but moot for now.

The deadline dates back to Sept. 5, when Trump announced that he was ending the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provided protection from deportation and work permits for about 800,000 young people who were brought to the U.S. as children and are now living here illegally.

To lessen the blow, the administration announced that recipients whose status was set to expire before March 5 would be allowed to apply for renewals, so long as their applications were received within a month.

Trump framed that as giving Congress six months to come up with a legislative fix.

But that timeline became far less significant when a federal court judge in San Francisco blocked Trump’s action on the grounds that young immigrants would suffer “irreparable harm.”

In response, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it was once again accepting DACA renewals, processing them just as they had before Trump’s September announcement — including renewals for applicants whose permits expire after March 5.

Asked whether that would change on March 5, USCIS said they could not speculate on any “potential outcomes,” but that the agency “will comply with the federal court order and will accept requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA.”

“Until further notice,” they added, “the DACA policy will be operated on the terms in place before it was rescinded on Sept. 5, 2017.”

Pressed on what would change on March 5, a White House official said the administration was confident the courts would act ahead of that date. In the meantime, Trump has pressured Democrats in Congress to support an immigration proposal they say is a non-starter.

The Supreme Court will meet in private on Feb. 16 and on the agenda is the administration’s bid to have the San Francisco judge’s order reviewed before the end of the term in June.

It’s a longshot strategy, but even if that succeeds, the judge’s order to accept DACA renewals will remain in effect at least until the Supreme Court rules definitively.

The administration has chosen not to seek a stay of the order from the Supreme Court, meaning the administration has not asked the justices to block the California judge’s order as it waits.

Unless there’s a legislative resolution, it’s unclear how the fight might be resolved by March 5, barring a surprise move by Trump.

In the meantime, thousands of DACA recipients have already lost protections and work authorization since Trump announced his decision on Sept. 5.

Adding to the uncertainty: Mixed messages from the administration.

Trump has repeated suggestions that he might be willing to push back his deadline, telling reporters recently that he has the right to do that if he wants.

But Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has described that as possibly “unconstitutional” — the same argument made repeatedly by the Justice Department and by administration attorneys defending Trump’s action in court.