On September 5, the Trump administration terminated the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the Obama-era program that granted legal protection to undocumented immigrants who had been brought to the US as children, with a six-month delay to allow US authorities to close pending DACA applications and renewals as well as give the US Congress an opportunity to pass legislation on the matter.
On Friday, the US Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump's administration to block internal records related to the termination of DACA program, court documents revealed.
"The application for a stay presented to Justice Kennedy and by him referred to the Court is granted, and the District Court's September 22, 2017, October 17, 2017, and November 20, 2017 orders to extent they require discovery and addition to the administrative record filed by the Government," the court filing said.
Many legal experts said they believe DACA cannot survive court challenges in its current form because the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the authority to change US immigration law.
According to the US-based media reports, after Donald Trump terminated DACA, he told the program’s some 700,000 recipients, who then faced the prospect of expulsion, that they had "nothing to worry about." However, about 154,000 people whose status was scheduled for renewal before March had only until October to send in their documents, thus nearly 22,000 of them were unable to submit their materials in time.
Currently, the Center for American Progress says at least 851 DACA recipients lose their legal status weekly which allows them to work and live in the US.
US Supreme Court allows Trump to shield documents on DACA
09 December 2017
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The Supreme Court decision was settled by a 5 to 4 vote. The court noted the responses to Trump's petition for a writ of mandamus has to be filed by Wednesday.
