US Supreme Court blocks Donald Trump administration from ending 'Dreamers' immigrant program

In a major setback to President Donald Trump, the US Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the administration's move to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Trump had made his crackdown on legal and illegal immigration a central part of his presidency and for the re-election campaign as well, in which he is seeking a second term in office.

The court in a 5-4 ruling upheld the lower court decisions that called the attempt to move to end DACA program, often called "Dreamers", was unlawful. The court called the administration`s actions as "arbitrary and capricious" under a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act.

Though, the ruling does not prevent Trump from trying again to end the program. 

The DACA program protects hundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the United States illegally as children from deportation.

The ruling means that the roughly 649,000 immigrants, mostly young Hispanic adults born in Mexico and other Latin American countries, currently enrolled in DACA will remain protected from deportation and eligible to obtain renewable two-year work permits, the Reuters said in a report.

"We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies. We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action," conservative Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

While Trump called the decision 'horrible and politically charged'.

"These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives," Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump`s administration had argued that former US President Barack Obama had exceeded his constitutional powers when he created DACA.

Obama had created DACA after Congress failed to pass bipartisan legislation to overhaul US immigration policy. DACA offered protections for the immigrants known as "Dreamers," a moniker derived from the name of an immigration bill.