Dream endures

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined the Trump administration’s request for it to immediately review lower court decisions about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Federal district judges in California and New York have issued nationwide injunctions against the administration’s rescission of DACA, blocking the White House from ending the program on March 5.

The administration wanted the Supreme Court to take up its case immediately, instead of allowing the case to proceed as normal through the appeals courts.

It’s difficult to overstate how unusual the Trump administration’s request was.

As a matter of procedure, the Supreme Court doesn’t weigh in on cases before the appellate courts have reviewed them. In the extremely rare instances when it has jumped the line, it’s only been for matters where timely resolution of national issues was absolutely necessary (like solving the Iranian hostage crisis, for example).

By effectively telling the Trump administration to wait in line like everyone else, the court is (rightly) saying that ending protections for “Dreamers” doesn’t rise to the level of national crisis.

It’s also saying that it won’t step in to solve a problem of the White House’s own making. (President Trump announced in September that he would let the program expire in March.)

The appropriate body to resolve this was always Congress, which is in charge of immigration policy.

Congress is even more gridlocked than usual over immigration. Republicans dominate both houses, and the moderate and conservative groups within this party can’t resolve their own ideological differences on the issue. (They certainly can’t find compromise with Democrats.) Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate failed to find 60 votes for a bipartisan measure that would’ve legalized the Dreamers and produced $25 million for a border wall.

The court’s action likely will grant lawmakers a reprieve on the issue through the midterm elections. But it also makes it clear that the final responsibility lies with the same lawmakers who can’t, or won’t, do what’s right for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants.