Supreme Court sets DACA on a new course

Ruling gives program’s enrollees a reprieve

With two brief sentences Monday, the Supreme Court dramatically changed the debate over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and the fate of nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants who are part of it.

The uncertainty over the program had left DACA enrollees terrified over their future and left Congress so conflicted that DACA negotiations contributed to a three-day government shutdown last month.

By refusing to hear a California case, the high court ensured that the program will survive at least through the fall, giving enrollees a reprieve from deportation and Congress more time to craft a permanent solution.

“This temporary decision is, nonetheless, a great legal victory on behalf of the

DACA recipients, who have been hanging by a thread, wondering if their permits would expire in a week,” said

Ben Monterroso, executive director of Mi

Familia Vota, a group that recruits Hispanics to register to vote.

In September, President Trump announced he would end the Obama-era program, which was protecting nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation. He set the official termination date as March 5, giving Congress six months to find a legislative solution.

That left DREAMers, undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children before their 18th birthday, in a state of panic, because they would be exposed to deportation if they lost their protections and would lose the work permits.

Employers were preparing to lay off enrollees. And many DREAMers were unsure whether they would be able to remain in colleges and universities or continue receiving grants and loans that helped them afford those schools.

Now, they can rest a little easier

The decision is “a great legal victory on behalf of the DACA recipients, who have been hanging by a thread.”

Ben Monterroso

knowing that they will remain protected and can continue renewing their DACA protections as the case moves back to lower courts.

Andrew Pincus, a Supreme Court litigator at the Mayer Brown law firm, said appeals courts would likely rule on several DACA-related lawsuits over the summer. That means the question would not come back before the Supreme Court until its next term, which begins in October.

Under the rulings, undocumented immigrants now in the program can file to renew their two-year terms. No one can apply during this period.

Congressional leaders had been struggling to meet the March 5 deadline to pass a law to protect enrollees.

Negotiations between Congress and the White House have been heated. Democrats have been requesting a “clean” bill focused only on protecting enrollees, and Republicans have been seeking boosted immigration enforcement and border security in exchange, including billions of dollars to expand the southern border wall.

The impasse led to a three-day government shutdown in January, and congressional negotiators have remained at a stalemate. Now, Congress has far more time to find that compromise.

Greisa Martinez, policy and advocacy director for United We Dream, a coalition of young undocumented immigrants, said they will follow through on a planned day of protests in Washington on March 5 to urge Congress to continue negotiating.

“We’ve waited for too long on institutions of power to decide our fate,” Martinez said. “We will remind Congress about what is at stake.”

The battle in the courts started last month when U.S. District Judge William Alsup in California ruled the Trump administration wrongly ended the DACA.

The Department of Justice appealed that ruling straight to the Supreme Court, a rare move that would bypass the regular order of appeals. The Supreme Court did not rule on Alsup’s ruling; it said the case should proceed through regular channels.

That means the case now goes back to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California. That court, which has ruled against other Trump administration programs such as its travel ban targeting majority-Muslim countries, could rule this summer.

Meanwhile, a separate judge in New York also has ruled against the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA. That case will go through the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.

Once those courts rule, the Justice Department could appeal to the Supreme Court.