SHOWDOWN

SCOTUS Agrees to Hear Trump’s Case to End Obama’s DACA Program

Will hear arguments next term on whether Trump admin can shut down program protecting 800,000 undocumented ‘DREAMers’ brought to U.S. as minors.

The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will decide, during its next term, whether President Trump can end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects about 800,000 undocumented “DREAMer” immigrants from being deported. The program enables children of undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. if they arrived before 2007 and were under the age of 16 when their parents brought them stateside. The high court is expected to hear the arguments and then issue a decision in spring or summer of 2020—in the heat of the next presidential campaign. Trump initially attempted to shut down the program in 2017, claiming that President Obama’s use of executive authority to enact it violated “the core tenets that sustain our republic.” Despite Trump’s attempts, federal judges have so far ruled the administration must maintain sections of the DACA program. Trump himself has given contradictory public statements about the initiative, at one point even saying: “I love the DREAMers.”