Supreme Court blocks Trump administration from ending DACA

The Obama-era program shields 16,000+ undocumented AAPI immigrants from deportation

By Andrew Peng

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WASHINGTON — A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday prevented the Trump administration from moving forward in its push to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program, ruling that the government’s decision violated federal law.

• The 5–4 decision, a major victory for AAPI groups, preserves the legal status of roughly 700,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children — at least for now. The Obama-era policy, instituted via executive action in 2012, has shielded more than 16,000 undocumented AAPI immigrants from deportation, including many from South Korea, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, and China.
• President Trump moved to terminate the program in 2017, declaring it unconstitutional, but a series of federal appeals courts blocked the attempt. In oral arguments last November, the Supreme Court weighed whether courts have the power to review the administration’s decision, as well as whether the government provided sufficient reasoning in revoking DACA.
• The court’s ruling does not mean that the White House can never cancel DACA in the future, but the administration failed to follow proper legal requirements and provide adequate explanation in its latest push. The opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, appears similar to last year’s ruling against the Trump administration’s plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
• “We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” Roberts wrote. “We address only whether the agency [Department of Homeland Security] complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action. Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients. That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner.”
• Immigrant advocates contend that DACA has acted as a critical support structure, providing AAPI families with the resources, work permits, and guidance needed to succeed in the U.S.

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