Justice Dept. says President Trump had right to end DACA

The Justice Department submitted a legal brief to the Supreme Court Monday that stated President Trump acted lawfully when he decided to end the Obama-era immigration program known as DACA in September of 2017, according to a new report.

The Department of Homeland Security, “correctly, and at a minimum reasonably, concluded that DACA is unlawful,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in a brief submitted to the Supreme Court late Monday.

“At best, DACA is legally questionable,” Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued in legal briefs. “At worst, it is illegal.”

Francisco stressed that the executive branch was within its authority to phase out the Obama-era program and that the lower courts “erred” in “second-guessing” the Department of Homeland Security’s “entirely rational judgment to stop facilitating ongoing violations of federal law on a massive scale.”

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, was created under an executive order in 2012. The program gives some illegal immigrants — known as “Dreamers” — who were brought to the United States as children– the opportunity to receive a renewable two-year reprieve from deportation and become eligible for a work permit.

In 2017, the Trump administration announced its plan to phase out the program, but federal courts have ruled that the phase-out could not apply retroactively and that the program should be restarted.

As things stand, two nationwide preliminary injunctions issued by lower courts have forced DHS to continue to allow renewals in the program for nearly two years.

The legal brief comes as the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case on November 12. The program has become a focal point in the debate over Trump’s proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall and efforts to crack down on immigration. A decision siding with the administration could strip protections for nearly 700,000 so-called Dreamers in a case that will come down in the heat of the next election.