While still waiting for a federal appeals court to rule on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to take up the case.
Enacted during the Obama era, DACA protects from deportation thousands of immigrants who arrived in the U.S. when they were young children. In court papers, Solicitor General Noel Francisco said the Obama administration introduced DACA "even though existing laws provided them no ability to do so," and the Department of Homeland Security now has the authority to "end the discretionary DACA policy." The Trump administration claims that because he bypassed Congress to launch DACA, Obama exceeded his constitutional powers.
Three different district courts have ruled that the government must continue to process renewals of DACA applications until there is a final ruling.