TRUMP has raged against the Supreme Court’s ruling on DACA, the program protecting young Dreamer immigrants from deportation, for the second day running, comparing it to a football game. On Friday, the president confirmed his administration would submitting “enhanced papers” to challenge the court’s decision. In a surprise move, considering the court’s conservative majority, justices […]
TRUMP has raged against the Supreme Court’s ruling on DACA, the program protecting young Dreamer immigrants from deportation, for the second day running, comparing it to a football game.
On Friday, the president confirmed his administration would submitting “enhanced papers” to challenge the court’s decision.
In a surprise move, considering the court’s conservative majority, justices ruled that Trump’s administration had broken federal procedure law in ending a program shielding dreamers from deportation.
The Supreme Court ruled the government cannot end what Trump has called an “illegal executive amnesty”, brought in by former President Barack Obama, which prevents 650,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children from being deported.
The DACA decision will prevent his administration from ending the program, scuppering pledges the president had made to “immediately terminate” the act.
A day after Thursday’s decision, Trump vowed to fight.
“The Supreme Court asked us to resubmit on DACA, nothing was lost or won,” he tweeted on Friday. “They “punted”, much like in a football game (where hopefully they would stand for our great American Flag). We will be submitting enhanced papers shortly in order to properly fulfil the Supreme Court’s ruling & request of yesterday.
“I have wanted to take care of DACA recipients better than the Do Nothing Democrats, but for two years they refused to negotiate – They have abandoned DACA. Based on the decision the Dems can’t make DACA citizens. They gained nothing!”
Thursday’s ruling is another legal blow to Trump, who slammed the court’s decision as “shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans”.
Ken Cuccinelli, the Department of Homeland Security acting deputy secretary, on Friday said the department would “move as quickly as possible” to present Trump with various executive options he could take.
That still leaves open the appropriate solution, which the Supreme Court mentioned, and that is that Congress step up to the plate,” he told Fox News in an interview shortly before Trump’s tweet.
Trump went on a Twitter rampage after the announcement, saying the US needs new justices of the Supreme Court.
It comes days after Trump’s two Supreme court picks, Supreme Court justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, went against the White House on issues concerning gay rights and sanctuary cities.
Trump tweeted on Thursday: “The recent Supreme Court decisions, not only on DACA, Sanctuary Cities, Census, and others, tell you only one thing, we need NEW JUSTICES of the Supreme Court.
“If the Radical Left Democrats assume power, your Second Amendment, Right to Life, Secure Borders, and Religious Liberty, among many other things, are OVER and GONE!”
He had earlier tweeted: “These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives.”
The justices rejected administration arguments that the 8-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program is illegal and that courts have no role to play in the decision to end DACA.
They ruled 5-4 in a vote that upheld lower court rulings that found Trump’s 2017 move to rescind DACA unlawful.
Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, wrote that the administration did not pursue the end of the program properly.
“We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” Roberts wrote.
“We address only whether the agency 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.”
Trump quickly attacked the decision on Thursday, tweeting: “We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!”
He added: “Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn’t like me?”
An hour later, he continued on his Twitter rant, adding: “I will be releasing a new list of Conservative Supreme Court Justice nominees, which may include some, or many of those already on the list, by September 1, 2020. If given the opportunity, I will only choose from this list, as in the past, a Conservative Supreme Court Justice…
..Based on decisions being rendered now, this list is more important than ever before (Second Amendment, Right to Life, Religous Liberty, etc.) – VOTE 2020!
“As President of the United States, I am asking for a legal solution on DACA, not a political one, consistent with the rule of law. The Supreme Court is not willing to give us one, so now we have to start this process all over again.”
It is the latest surprise blow to the president after rulings on day rights and sanctuary cities went against the White House.
Earlier this month they denied a hearing on California’s “sanctuary city” law.
Gorsuch, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by Trump in April 2017, also voted against the White House Monday to protect LGBT workers in America from workplace discrimination.
The court’s decision was made despite the Trump administration’s push to infiltrate sanctuary cities.
Thursday’s ruling comes as a shock as the court has a conservative majority, and had been considering whether to allow Trump to shut down the program.
Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, had said they would not probe the administration’s reasons for doing so.
“I assume that was a very considered decision,” Kavanaugh said last year, while Gorsuch said he didn’t see any point in pressing the government for more information.
“What good would another five years of litigation over the adequacy of that explanation serve?” he asked.
DACA was introduced by President Barack Obama in 2012.
Young people who are brought into the States as children are allowed to apply for a temporary two year renewable status that protects them from deportation and allows them to work.
Trump’s administration has said it would not deport participants eligible for the program, but the argument arises over whether they are allowed to work.
“The whole thing was about work authorization and these other benefits,” Chief Justice Roberts previously said. “Both administrations have said they’re not going to deport the people.”
The Department of Homeland Security can try again, the chief justice added.
The ruling means that the roughly 649,000 immigrants, mostly young Hispanic adults born in Mexico and other Latin American countries, currently enrolled in DACA will remain protected from deportation and eligible to obtain renewable work permits.
Justice Thomas, a conservative judge, wrote a strongly worded dissent, which was joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, voicing his disagreement at Thursday’s ruling.
“Today’s decision must be recognized for what it is: an effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision,” he wrote.
“The majority has decided to prolong DHS’ initial overreach by providing a stopgap measure of its own…such timidity forsakes the Court’s duty to apply the law according to neutral principles.”
Both former Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and President Barack Obama publicly expressed their support.
“The Supreme Court made the right choice to overturn Donald Trump’s cruel termination of DACA—but this fight is far from over,” Warren wrote in a tweet. “I’ll keep fighting to ensure Dreamers and their families have a path to citizenship in the country they call home. #HereToStay”.
Obama added he was “happy”.
“Eight years ago this week, we protected young people who were raised as part of our American family from deportation,” he tweeted. “Today, I’m happy for them, their families, and all of us. We may look different and come from everywhere, but what makes us American are our shared ideals…”
Apple CEO Tim Cook released a statement backing his employees, of which 478 are Dreamers, calling them “members of our collective family”.
“With creativity and passion, they’ve made us a stronger, more innovative American company. We’re glad for today’s decision and will keep fighting until DACA’s protections are permanent.”
The ruling does not prevent Trump from trying again to end the program. But his administration is unlikely to be able to end DACA before the November 3 election in which Trump is seeking a second four-year term in office.
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