The Supreme Court of the United States ruled Thursday that the Trump administration’s plan to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program illegal. There are currently nearly 700,000 DACA recipients in the U.S., according to estimates from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote of the decision. “The wisdom of those decisions is none of our concern. We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action.”

In his dissent in the SCOTUS DACA case Justice Thomas says The decision is “An effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision.” pic.twitter.com/kFvWt4f2BH

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 18, 2020

The DACA program allows undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children to legally live and work in the country.

The order was implemented under the Obama administration in 2012 by executive authority as Republicans in Congress took issue with some of the demands in the pending legislation at the time.

“Now, both parties wrote this legislation,” Obama said at the time. “And a year and a half ago, Democrats passed the DREAM Act in the House, but Republicans walked away from it. It got 55 votes in the Senate, but Republicans blocked it. The bill hasn’t really changed. The need hasn’t changed. It’s still the right thing to do. The only thing that has changed, apparently, was the politics.”

He added, “As I said in my speech on the economy yesterday, it makes no sense to expel talented young people, who, for all intents and purposes, are Americans — they’ve been raised as Americans; understand themselves to be part of this country — to expel these young people who want to staff our labs, or start new businesses, or defend our country simply because of the actions of their parents — or because of the inaction of politicians.”

The Trump administration ordered the phased end to the program in 2017 when former Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security saying that DACA “was effectuated by the previous administration through executive action, without proper statutory authority and with no established end-date, after Congress’ repeated rejection of proposed legislation that would have accomplished a similar result. Such an open-ended circumvention of immigration laws was an unconstitutional exercise of authority by the Executive Branch.”

Moreover, Sessions warned that the policy “has the same legal and constitutional defects that the courts recognized as to DAPA, it is likely that potentially imminent litigation would yield similar results with respect to DACA.”

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke then moved to phase out DACA. In 2017, Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen issued a memo clarifying DHS’s position siding with the Trump administration.

Trump wrote of Thursday’s Supreme Court’s decision on Twitter, saying it was “horrible & politically charged,” and later asked, “Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn’t like me?”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1273634152433188865

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1273633632742191106

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Andy Biggs, R-AZ, said in a statement Thursday that Congress that “Former President Obama’s action was unlawful, unconstitutional, and created chaos and uncertainty in our immigration system. Even though the Roberts decision today found that the Trump administration’s rescission of DACA violated the APA, it is ironic that the Obama administration’s decision was made completely unilaterally – and not under the APA. Thankfully, no justice found that DACA could NOT be rescinded if the APA issue was corrected.”

He added, “I’m extremely disappointed in this decision and in Chief Justice John Roberts for continuing to side with our liberal justices and against the rule of law. Our nation is a nation of laws, and those laws must be upheld in order to maintain order throughout our union.”

“DACA obliterates that order and serves to incentivize more illegal immigrants to cross into our nation with hopes of receiving some reprieve from the federal government. Former President Obama disregarded his oath of office and responsibility to the rule of law when establishing DACA, and Chief Justice Roberts has proven himself unworthy of his oath. Americans should be outraged by this decision, and I urge President Trump and members of his administration to uphold the rule of law and fight against any amnesty to illegal immigrations.”