SALT LAKE CITY — While Thursday's US Supreme Court ruling on DACA (Dererred Action for Childhood Arrivals) was a little surprising it is, according to many experts, not perfect and definitely not permanent.
The high court blocked the Trump Administration's attempt to end the Obama-era program that shields undocumented immigrants from deportation if they came to the United States with their parents.
People who fall in that category, known as "dreamers," will now once again benefit from the executive order President Barack Obama issued in 2012.
The order gives them a two year reprieve from deportation.
When Obama signed it, more than 825,000 people over the age of 15 were eligible for DACA status.
It is not a path to citizenship, it must be renewed and there are terms and conditions to maintain eligibility.
But in 2017 President Trump rescinded DACA and the matter went all the way to the Supreme Court. The justices on Thursday revealed their 74 page, 5 to 4 decision.
The ruling was more like a technicality according to Leonor Perretta, an adjunct professor at the University of Utah and a practicing immigration attorney.
“That the administration unlawfully terminated DACA," Perretta said. "It didn’t find, interestingly enough, it didn’t find that DHS may not rescind DACA, it just found that the reasons that it gave for rescinding DACA are unlawful and violated the Administrative Procedures Act.”
The Trump Administration can take another shot at rescinding DACA but many experts feel that might not be a wise move, especially in an election year.
So for the time being, DACA is safe.
It also means that thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of people may now be eligible to apply since no new applications were accepted after President Trump's action 2017.
