November 11, 2019
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will hear oral arguments Tuesday to decide if Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is dead.
DACA protects 660,000 so-called Dreamers--those innocent immigrants brought into the the country as children by their illegal immigrant parents--by allowing them to stay and work in the USA with the possibility of eventually earning citizenship. President Barack Obama made DACA happen in June 2012 by executive order when comprehensive immigration reform stalled in Congress.
The current President of the United States (POTUS) Donald Trump rescinded DACA by executive order in September 2017, but lower courts blocked implementation of Trump's pathway to mass deportations.
POTUS wants SCOTUS to say DACA is dead.
That fateful decision would place all Dreamers at risk of immediate deportation.
Chief Justice John Roberts could likely be the swing vote, as he was in SCOTUS's decisions to allow Trump's modified immigration ban and to disallow a citizenship question on the 2020 census.
The two issues for SCOTUS are whether federal courts can even review POTUS's broad immigration authority and, if so, then did POTUS plan to implement this particular anti-DACA immigration policy change in a legal way.
Will Roberts tip his hand tomorrow while he questions counsel on both sides?
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