In the early days of summer a little more than seven months from now, the United States Supreme Court is likely to make a legally correct but politically troublesome decision. Chances are the court will say the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an administrative amnesty former President Barack Obama repeatedly said he couldn’t implement but did anyway, is against the law.
The time would not be optimum for the Trump administration, which announced in 2017 it was revoking the program but repeatedly has said it wants to make a deal to allow the young people affected by the program to stay in the country. No such deal has been worked out, and even though some polls favor allowing the DACA program immigrants to stay, it’s unlikely a deal will be passed before the high court decision and before the country is in the middle of campaign season.
Democrats aren’t interested in such a deal because it would appear to be a win for the Republican administration, and they can’t have that going into an election year. And besides, it would interfere with their current quest of impeaching the president.
On Tuesday, the high court heard arguments in a trio of cases about Trump’s decision to wind down DACA, whose participants are often known as Dreamers.
When the administration announced it was revoking the program two years ago, the move seemed like a no-brainer. The program had been created by executive order, and since Congress and not the president has the power to create immigration law, it appeared the program would be history.