Supreme Court’s DACA decision protects thousands of educators, students

Education Dive

Naaz Modan and Hallie Busta

June 18, 2020

Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday announced in a 5-4 decision that the Trump administration cannot end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama-era initiative that allows individuals who came to the U.S. as children to receive two-year temporary protection from deportation, subject to renewal, and to become eligible for a work permit.

• In September 2017, the Justice Department announced President Donald Trump’s plan to end DACA in a White House memo stating that DACA recipients should “use the time remaining on their work authorizations to prepare for and arrange their departure” from the U.S.

• The majority opinion — written by Chief Justice John Roberts — held that the Trump administration’s rescission of the program was “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act and failed to provide adequate reasoning to end the program. Roberts also wrote that Trump’s decision did not violate the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection clause, which would have more fully protected the program from future termination attempts.

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