The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the Trump administration’s challenge to a lower court ruling temporarily blocking it from ending the DACA program.
The court’s decision delivers a blow to the administration, which argues that DACA is unconstitutional. It also could ease some pressure on Congress to quickly come up with a legislative solution, however, since it means the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will continue to review the case.
The decision comes just a week before a March 5 deadline set by President Trump for Congress to enact legislation to replace the program. The court denied the government’s request that it hear the case without prejudice and the justices provided no further explanation for their decision.
Congress has been unable to reach an agreement on a measure to replace DACA action and has just one full legislative day scheduled before the March 5 deadline. In exchange for allowing DREAMers to remain in the United States and get a path to citizenship, Trump has demanded money for his wall on the Mexican border and changes to two legal immigration programs.
Had the courts, in California and New York, not enjoined Trump’s order, DACA beneficiaries would have begun to lose their benefits after the March 5th deadline. Nearly 20,000 DACA recipients lost their benefits following the September announcement as they failed to apply for renewal.
Under the injunction, beneficiaries who were covered by DACA in September, including those who didn’t renew, are allowed to apply for a two-year renewal of their permit. Of those 800,000, more than 100,000 left the program by leaving the country, receiving different immigration status or being expelled from the program. Former DACA beneficiaries will be allowed to reapply while the injunction lasts as long as they weren’t removed from the program for criminal behavior.
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