Supreme Court Blocks Trump Cancellation of DACA Immigration Program

In a 5-4 ruling that affects more than 600,000 immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, high court says administration didn’t provide sufficient reasons for canceling DACA

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s decision to cancel a program that provided legal protections and work authorizations to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

The court, in a 5-4 opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, said the administration acted arbitrarily when it moved to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, failing to offer an adequate explanation for doing so.

The ruling hands President Trump one of the biggest legal defeats of his presidency, and in the middle of an election year in which immigration is again a top political topic. The decision effectively provides relief to more than 600,000 DACA recipients who have been in limbo since Mr. Trump in 2017 decided to wind down the program.

The court said the Trump administration didn’t follow the legal requirements for transparency and accountability in making federal policy.

“The dispute before the Court is not whether [the Department of Homeland Security] may rescind DACA. All parties agree that it may. The dispute is instead primarily about the procedure the agency followed in doing so,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote, joined in full or part by liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

He added that the decision didn’t address “whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” which wasn’t the court’s concern. But the government failed its duty under the Administrative Procedure Act to “provide a reasoned explanation for its action,” including “what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients.”