Supreme Court allows DACA protections to continue … for now

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear appeals on lower court rulings that prevent the government from shutting down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA.)

The Trump administration had asked the court to consider the case, but the justices have pushed off any DACA cases until the next term which begins on October 1.

DACA gives legal relief to illegal immigrants who were brought here by their parents provided that they were under 16 upon arrival and that they did so before 2007.

Both Trump and Obama, who created DACA in an executive order, said that the program should have come from Congress and was outside the president’s authority.

Now, President Trump and congressional Democrats are locked in a battle over border funding and Trump has offered to extend DACA protections for 3 years if Pelosi and Schumer will approve funding for border barriers that the Border Patrol has said they desperately need.

Pelosi refused Trump’s latest compromise and with the Supreme Court putting this decision off until late 2019, there is less pressure on her to negotiate in good faith.

If instead, Trump re-opens the government with no compromise in-place, DACA recipients will likely lose their protection when the Supreme Court takes up the case. So for 10 months, they have legal relief – but only for 10 months – unless Pelosi decides to compromise.