Destination of more than 600,000 dreamers is in the hands of the US Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court appeared torn on Tuesday by President Donald Trump's decision to end the program that protected more than 600,000 dreamers from deportation, immigrants who entered the country illegally as children accompanying them. your parents.

These young people have been in legal limbo since Trump eliminated the 2017 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created in the Barack Obama administration in 2012, which allows young people to work, study and avoid deportation to countries. of origin that many do not even remember.

Now, his fate depends on the nine judges who make up the court, including five conservative magistrates, two of whom are appointed by the Republican president.

Outside the court in Washington, hundreds of people gathered shouting "Our house is here" to express their support for the "dreamers".

Arelis Hernández, 36, a California-based program beneficiary, camped out of court for two days to attend the hearing.

"It was amazing to be inside," he told AFP. "Our lives are in their hands, the decisions they make will affect us," he explained.

Trump's ruling, part of his tough anti-immigration policy, is one of the top cases reviewed by the court this season.

- An “Illegal Policy” -

The courts that accepted the appeals in favor of the “dreamers” indicated that the suspension of the program had been decided “arbitrarily and capriciously”.

Last September, government representative to the Supreme Court, Noel Francisco, argued that the procedure to close the DACA was "legal and rational."

These arguments seemed to satisfy several of the conservative judges.

One of the dreamers' attorneys, Theodore Olson, responded that the government's decision to terminate this program had abrupt, tangible and adverse consequences and substantial disruptions in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and their families, employers and their communities.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor said she had some difficulty understanding the illegality of DACA.

It's not about laws, it's about destroying lives, ”added the magistrate.

In the morning, Trump used Twitter to say that many of the program's beneficiaries are not so young anymore and are “far from angels,” adding that some are “tanned” criminals.

The president also pointed out on the social network that when his predecessor Barack Obama created the program, he had no legal powers.

"If the Supreme Court resolves this with a revocation, it will reach an agreement with the Democrats to allow them to stay," wrote the head of state.

According to data from the Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), there are 660,000 DACA registered beneficiaries, of which 529,760 (just over 80%) arrived from Mexico. There are also young people from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, South Korea and Brazil, among others.

- Currency trading -

Earlier this year, DACA was placed at the center of a confrontation between the Republican president and Democratic congressmen. The arm wrestling resulted in a partial paralysis of the federal government for over a month due to lack of funding.

Trump offered to temporarily protect the “dreamers” in exchange for $ 5.7 billion approval to build the border wall with Mexico, his main campaign proposal to curb irregular immigration. The proposal was rejected.