WASHINGTON: The US 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 programme 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 US 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) programme, 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 US 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.”

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, called the administration’s bid to bypass the 9th Circuit, which has ruled again Trump on other matters, “unusual and unnecessary.”

“We look forward to explaining to the Ninth Circuit court that DACA is fully legal. For the sake of the Dreamers who help make our economy and our state strong, the rescission of DACA should not be allowed to stand,” Becerra said.

The DACA dispute is the latest major case brought to the Supreme Court for its consideration arising from Trump’s immigration policies. The justices are due to hear arguments in April on the legality of his latest travel ban order barring entry to people from several Muslim-majority nations. Congress so far has failed to pass legislation to address the fate of the “Dreamers,” including a potential path to citizenship.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2018