Arguments begin Tuesday as Supreme Court weighs DACA fate

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Tuesday on whether it should preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program protecting undocumented young immigrants from deportation.

The court will hear the government’s appeal of preliminary injunctions by three federal judges in San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C., that blocked a plan by the administration of President Donald Trump to end the program, known as DACA.

A decision is expected by the close of the court’s term at the end of June.

The DACA program currently protects nearly 700,000 young people, of whom nearly 200,000 live in California, according to state Attorney General Xavier Becerra.

In the San Francisco case before the high court, U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued an injunction last year in a total of five lawsuits filed by the University of California, the state of California, the city of San Jose, Santa Clara County and six individuals.

The DACA program was established by President Barack Obama in 2012 and the Trump administration announced plans to wind it down in September 2017.

California and other plaintiffs in the lawsuits contend the decision to end DACA was “arbitrary and capricious,” made without a reasoned explanation in violation of a federal administrative procedure law.

The U.S. Department of Justice contends the program was illegal and that courts don’t have the authority to review the administration’s decision to terminate it.

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