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.

Mask-Off Moment: Palestinian Journo Calls African American Hakeem Jeffries an ‘AIPAC Monkey’

Canada Talked Tough with Trump: Now Job Losses Hit 42K as Tariffs Are Set to Hit Harder

House Dems plot Trump investigation blitz if they seize majority

California pizza joint allegedly used as meth distribution hub as illegal immigrant charged

Kennedy Center ceiling partially collapses as Trump-led board pushes for 2-year closure

Machete-wielding MS-13 gangster wanted for murder walks free after Biden-appointed judge releases him: DHS

Trump-linked MAGA Inc pours $10M into Ken Paxton’s Texas Senate race against James Talarico

Trump Admin Shows Iran What Real Power Looks Like: Responds to Attack By Annihilating 3 Oil Tankers

EXCLUSIVE: FBI’s fifth Most Wanted Fraudster captured after alleged SNAP scam suspect arrested in India

North Carolina Dem Senate candidate added former Bloods gang member to criminal justice task force: report

‘Insensitive Is Killing Three Children!’ DA Blasts Critics Who Called the Lindsay Clancy Prosecution ‘Insensitive’

ICYMI: El-Sayed Admits to Unhinged Response to Criticism of His Beard – He Violently Smashed a Vodka Bottle

Lindsay Clancy Fangirls Push Child Killer’s GoFundMe Total to Staggering $1.1M Following Mistrial

Taxpayers Footed the Bill for Nearly $500M in Food Stamps at California Fast Food Joints

Clancy Copycat: Mother Accused of Murdering 2-Year-Old Confirmed to Be Obsessed with Lindsay Clancy

“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.