By Pete Williams | NBC News
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration cannot carry out its plan to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has allowed nearly 800,000 young people, known as “Dreamers,” to avoid deportation and remain in the U.S.
The decision is a big legal defeat for President Donald Trump on the issue of immigration, which has been a major focus of his domestic agenda.
The ruling said the government failed to give an adequate justification for ending the federal program. The administration could try again to shut it down by offering a more detailed explanation for its action, but the White House might not want to end such a popular program in the heat of a presidential campaign.
“Today, the Supreme Court handed a big win to more than 700,000 young Dreamers when it held in a 5-4 Decision that the manner in which the Trump Administration ended the DACA program in 2017 was arbitrary and capricious and therefore violated the Administrative Procedures Act. The DACA program, created by executive order in the Obama era, grants work authorization in 2 year periods and enables recipients to obtain social security numbers. With today’s Supreme Court ruling, the program may continue for the time being, but expect the Trump administration to try and end it with a different rationale in the future.” ~ Darius Amiri, Immigration Chair at Rose Law Group
