Dare to Dream

In another pleasant shock this week, SCOTUS rejected the Trump Administration's attempt to kill the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, basically stating that Team Trump went about it all wrong.  Note: they didn't say that Trump and friends couldn't kill the program, and they certainly could decide to try it again. 

The Roberts' decision was that the decision to end DACA was "arbitrary and capricious", and Justice Sotomayor noted that there was a strong likelihood of negative bias against DACA recipients in that decision as well. It's about the process of ending the program, not the constitutionality of the program itself (which also has a strong basis, but we can leave that point for the moment) that was in question.

So where does Trump go from here? Heck if I know--but if Trump wants to go back to the drawing board and end DACA, the rationale will have to sound quite different than "because my base really, really wants me to deport kids and that's important to my getting re-elected", which, to be super honest, is how I think it could be depicted.  In the meanwhile, there is broad support for creating a legal status for Dreamers outside of Trump die-hards. (Not that Trump seems to be aware that people outside of his base exist most of the time.)

In the meantime, this is a relief for now for several hundred thousand young people who can live their lives without fear a little longer. But for those of us looking at a decision of our own in November, let's keep their situation in mind, because the current Senate is highly unlikely to take up legislation to give them a more permanent sense of relief.