A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 last week that the Trump Administration’s attempt to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2017 was improper because the administration did not provide adequate justification for terminating the program. DACA has continued to operate in large part since 2017 while awaiting the outcome of various legal challenges to the Trump Administration’s attempt to end it.
The ruling in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, No. 18-587 (June 18, 2020), provides welcome relief for now to approximately 700,000 individuals who benefit from DACA by living and working legally in the U.S., as well as to the tens of thousands of employers who have DACA beneficiaries in their workforces. The effect of the Supreme Court’s ruling should restore DACA to the same status it held prior to the Administration’s attempted rescission in 2017.
Because the ruling was made on procedural grounds that did not require the Court to address the legality of the DACA program on the merits, the Trump Administration is not precluded from trying to rescind DACA again, albeit in order to succeed by providing a better justification. It is unclear at this point whether that will occur.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.