Supreme Court Rejects DACA Case for Now
The White House's Termination of the DACA Program will Continue to be Delayed
With the March 5th deadline set by the Trump Administration quickly approaching, the Supreme Court has declined to take the case concerning the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, at least for the time being. After a lower district court delayed the program's termination in January in order to more closely examine the legal reasoning of the order, it became a looming question as to whether or not the March deadline would continue to have any meaning.
As of now it does not, for while the White House attempted to bypass the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California by heading directly to the nation's highest judiciary body, the Supreme Court has decided that the matter should undergo the normal judicial process before it decides whether or not to take the case.
A ruling by the 9th Circuit may take place by summer, after which a Supreme Court ruling would likely not be reached for over a year. Throughout this time the program will remain in limbo - effective, but its future ever more uncertain. The Senate has thus far failed in establishing a deal to secure the fates of Dreamers who had been brought into the United States illegally by their parents, and any hope for a legislative fix continues to be fleeting.
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Former DACA recipients should renew their statuses under the program as long as there is one, and there are a number of clinics and legal assistance services to help with just that. It remains that the best and most permanent route for guaranteeing Dreamers a continuous home in this country is a legislative one, so constituents and office holders alike should exert as much pressure as possible on Congress and the White House to establish a bipartisan bill and end this uncertainty. While the efforts thus far have been disappointing, it has been shown that there is plenty of common ground for securing such a deal, a deal that the majority of Americans rightfully support.