U.S. Supreme Court makes DACA ruling

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is a program created under the Obama administration. When Trump took office, there was a challenge about the program’s legality which ended up with it being in front of the U.S. Supreme Court for a ruling. According to the National Immigration Law Center, the U.S. Supreme Court was considering if the Trump administration’s termination of DACA was legal. The court was not making a decision about the legality of the law. It was only determining if the way the Trump administration handled the program was legal, and on June 18, 2020, the court decided it was not.

What this means

The U.S. Supreme Court stated that the way the administration went about ending DACA did not follow proper federal laws, so the court removed any type of restrictions or limitations on DACA that were put in place by the administration’s actions. During the consideration, DACA was on hold and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stopped accepting new applications. Since the ruling, this should lift the freeze and allow for new applications.

The USCIS stance

The USCIS did issue a statement about how it will react to the decision from the court. In this statement, the USCIS deputy director stated that the decision does not impact the fact that DACA is not a legal program. He warns that while DACA may continue to operate for now, it is not something that will remain in effect for long. The Trump administration can still take action as long as it follows the law. The court did not rule that DACA itself was legal in any way.