The US Supreme Court has ruled on Thursday (June 18), that the Trump administration cannot execute its plan to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), and has stated that it will remain in place.
The DACA program has allowed nearly 800,000 young people - referred to as "Dreamers" - to avoid deportation and remain in the United States.
Per NBC, the decision was autored mostly by Chief Justice John Roberts, and has been described as a huge legal defeat for President Donald Trump and his focus surrounding immigration.
Upwards of 652,800 people, including doctors who are fighting coronavirus on the front line, could be affected by the decision to remove the program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the Guardian reports.
While the program did not present a pathway to citizenship, it did allow young people who grew up in the US without legal immigration status to obtain renewable two-year authorizations to live and work there.
The program was implemented by Barack Obama in 2012.
It's a popular policy and a Marquette University law school poll found that 53% of voters would oppose a decision by the supreme court to end DACA.
A Pew Research survey this month found that 74% of Americans were in favor of a law that would give legal status to undocumented immigrants who enter the country as children.
Trump appeared to be one of the most powerful Dreamer supporters.
Days after ending the program in 2017, he tweeted: "Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!"
The Trump administration justified its decision to shut down the DACA because they claimed it was implemented illegally by Obama in 2012, forcing the courts to debate its legality.
