Supreme Court rejects Trump administration’s appeal over immigration

Monica Almeida | Reuters

A DACA recipient who was brought to the U.S. when she was 4-years-old, speaks during a rally in support of a permanent legislative solution for immigrants in Los Angeles, California, February 3, 2018.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday dealt a setback to President Donald Trump, requiring his administration to maintain protections he has sought to end for hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally into the United States as children.

The justices refused to hear the administration’s appeal of a federal judge’s Jan. 9 injunction that halted Trump’s move to rescind a program that benefits immigrants known as “Dreamers” implemented in 2012 by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. Under the Republican president’s action, the protections were due to start phasing out beginning in March.

In a brief order, the justices did not explain their reasoning, but said the appeal was “denied without prejudice,” indicating they will maintain an open mind on the underlying legal issue still being considered by a lower court, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The high court also said it expects the lower court to “proceed expeditiously to decide this case.”
Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, roughly 700,000 young adult, mostly Hispanics, are protected from deportation and given work permits for two-year periods, after which they must re-apply.

The Trump administration had challenged a nationwide injunction by San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who ruled last month that DACA must remain in place while the litigation is resolved.

In an unusual move, the administration appealed directly to the Supreme Court instead of going first to a federal appeals court.

Alsup ruled that the challengers, including the states of California, Maine, Maryland and Minnesota and Obama’s former homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano, were likely to succeed in arguing that the administration’s decision to end DACA was arbitrary.

Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a statement that the administration will continue to defend the Department of Homeland Security’s “lawful authority to wind down DACA in an orderly manner.”

O’Malley said that “while we were hopeful for a different outcome,” the high court rarely agrees to take up cases before a lower court has ruled, “though in our view it was warranted for the extraordinary injunction requiring the Department of Homeland Security to maintain DACA.”