Sotomayor at DACA Oral Arguments: ‘This Is About Our Choice to Destroy Lives’

During oral arguments at the United States Supreme Court Tuesday on he future of the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty program, Justice Sonia Sotomayor injected politics into the discussion, saying President Donald Trump has said he would find a way to keep DACA recipients in the United States but has not done so.

Sotomayor also addressed what other justices cited — the “reliance interests” of DACA recipients, or how the government program has allowed illegal migrants to get Social Security numbers, drivers licenses, and work permits that they have come to rely on.

Sotomayor said:

I think my colleagues have rightly pointed [out] there’s a whole lot of reliance interests that weren’t looked at, including the very President of — current President telling DACA-eligible people that they were safe under him and that he would find a way to keep them here. And so he hasn’t and, instead, he’s done this. And that, I think, has something to be considered before you rescind a policy.

“Right,” Solicitor General Noel Francisco said.

‘He should go’: Senate Dems turned on Swalwell ahead of resignation announcement

Thom Tillis slams Trump’s proposal to impose tolls on ships in Strait of Hormuz

Florida doctor charged after allegedly removing wrong organ during surgery

Ukraine has no ‘unrealistic expectations’ for Hungary as it pitches itself as ally to Magyar

Spanberger’s ‘unconstitutional’ push to redefine presidential elections makes voters ‘NULL AND VOID’: critics

Eric Swalwell scandal hangs over ‘best friend’ Ruben Gallego’s 2028 hopes

Watch: Pelosi and Fellow Dems Scramble to Defend Themselves from Fallout of Swalwell’s Implosion

Breaking: Woman Steps Forward with Darkest Accusations Yet Against Swalwell

Illegal immigrant driver charged with DUI after car veers off road, kills two children on bikes: police

House Dems unveil bill to examine removing Trump using 25th Amendment

Socialist Mamdani touts government-run grocery plan as ‘grand experiment’’ at grocery new site

Blasphemous California Tech Company Offers Paid Video Calls with AI ‘Jesus’ Avatar

San Francisco Put in Subway Turnstiles That Can’t Be Jumped – Maintenance Dropped 96 Percent

Appeals court shuts down Boasberg contempt inquiry into Trump administration over El Salvador deportations

Kash Patel taunts Swalwell with FBI sit-down as resignation fallout grows

“Not just say I’ll give you six months to do it,” Sotomayer said, referring to Trump’s past announcement that he would hold off on rescinding DACA for six months to allow Congress to come up with a legislative solution.

“And where is the political decision made clearly?” Sotomayor said referring to the June 22, 2018 memorandum issued by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to explain why the department was rescinding DACA.

“That this is not about the law; this is about our choice to destroy lives,” Sotomayor said, directly expressing what she believed a ruling to end DACA would mean to those enrolled in it.

The back and forth between the justices, Francisco and two attorneys who argued for DACA petitioners — attorney Ted Olson and Michael Mongan, Solicitor General at California Department of Justice – included more discussion about the impact the ruling would have on both DACA recipients and the future enforcement of federal immigration law.

Olson and Mongan argued that the Trump administration did not provide a compelling reason for rescinding DACA, which came to the high court after differing results in lower court decisions on the matter.