Supreme Court may resolve DACA dispute
Justice Department hopes for rare review
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration seeks a fast track to the Supreme Court in hopes of reversing a federal judge’s order to restart a popular program allowing young undocumented immigrants to remain in the USA.
The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it will appeal U.S. District Judge William Alsup’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and to the Supreme Court — something it acknowledged was a rare step. It did not ask either court to block Alsup’s ruling.
The strategy is aimed at a speedy final resolution to the legal battle over DACA — the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — in a friendlier court. The high court has allowed other Trump administration policies to continue, most notably his immigration travel ban, over federal court rejections.
“It defies both law and common sense for DACA ... to somehow be mandated nationwide by a single district court in San Francisco,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. “We are now taking the rare step of requesting direct review on the merits of this injunction by the Supreme Court so that this issue may be resolved quickly and fairly for all the parties involved.”
Faced with last week’s decision, the administration announced Saturday that it would resume accepting renewal applications from immigrants brought to the USA as children. Alsup’s ruling did not require that it accept new applicants.
The administration announced last September that the program, begun by President Obama in 2012, would end unless it was renewed by Congress within six months.
Since then, negotiations have been tied up with the federal budget and other disputes. Trump demanded tighter border enforcement, including building a wall along the Mexican border.
The DACA program has protected about 800,000 “DREAMers” whose illegal status wasn’t their fault. It enabled them to avoid deportation and to gain work permits.
In his ruling, Alsup granted a request by California, the University of California system and several California cities to block the phaseout while their lawsuit challenging the termination plays out in court.
He said those approved for protection and work permits must be allowed to renew them before they expire.
Alsup said the challengers were likely to succeed by claiming that the Trump administration’s decision to end the program was “arbitrary and capricious” and based on a flawed legal premise. He said the plaintiffs would be harmed, in part through economic disruptions and the loss of tax revenue caused by the DREAMers’ departure.
Sessions announced Sept. 5 that the program would be phased out six months later, based on the administration’s view that it was illegally enacted without action by Congress. Trump urged lawmakers to come up with a permanent solution.
Four months have passed, and a deal remains elusive.