The Supreme Court on Monday declined a White House request to weigh in on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program. In September, President Trump announced he'd end the program — which shields certain young undocumented immigrants from deportation — on March 5, challenging Congress to offer a legislative solution by then.
The Trump administration had appealed to the Supreme Court after the decision to end DACA was thwarted at lower levels. Federal district courts in California and New York — two of the more immigrant-friendly states in the Union — have issued injunctions that essentially "block the Trump administration from ending the program on March 5, as planned," The Washington Post reports. The administration was hoping that the Supreme Court would review the injunctions and rule against them, but the justices declined to hear the case.
"The move is a victory for DACA's supporters," BuzzFeed News explains, as the program's fate is now in the hands of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Until the appellate court rules, DACA will likely stay in place — and as BuzzFeed News notes, the court "has been skeptical of several Trump administration actions."