LGBT groups on Thursday cheered a
Supreme Court ruling that affirmed protections for recipients of the
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
President Donald Trump attempted to
dismantle DACA, which allows the children of undocumented immigrants,
known as “dreamers,” to remain in the United States. Former
President Barack Obama signed the executive order creating the
program in 2012.
Writing for the 5-4 majority, Chief
Justice John Roberts said that Obama had the authority to create the
program and that Trump has the authority to end it. But Roberts added
that Trump's “total rescission” of DACA was “arbitrary and
capricious.”
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, applauded the decision, saying
it affects thousands of LGBT dreamers.
“This is a critical step in the right
direction for young people across the country,” HRC President
Alphonso David said in a statement. “The DACA program provides an
opportunity for young people, including LGBTQ Dreamers, to live
productive, safe and happy lives in the United States. Today’s
ruling by the Supreme Court keeps the DACA program in place, but
there is still work left to be done. Now, we must elect pro-equality
leaders to Congress to pass a clean DREAM Act – that is how we
permanently protect the nearly two million Dreamers, for whom today’s
ruling is only a temporary solution.”
“The U.S. Supreme Court has not only
given 700,000 DACA recipients a chance to remain in the only home
they have ever known,” GLAAD said in a tweet, “but has rebuked
the Trump Administration's ongoing efforts to demonize and hurt
hard-working immigrant families.”
The National Center for Lesbian Rights
(NCLR) said in a tweet that it was celebrating the ruling.
“Today #SCOTUS ruled that #DACA
recipients – over 39,000 of whom are #LGBTQ – cannot be deported
from the only country many of them have ever known,” the group
said. “#NCLR's #Immigration Project joins in celebrating this
decision.”
Trump criticized the decision in a
tweet, calling it and other rulings against his administration
“shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call
themselves Republicans or Conservatives.”