Trump dealt fresh blow on immigration

The US Supreme Court dealt President Donald Trump's anti-immigration efforts a fresh setback on Thursday when it rejected his cancellation of a program protecting nearly 700,000 "Dreamers"－undocumented migrants brought to the United States as children.

In the highest court's second rebuff of administration policies this past week, justices said Trump's 2017 move to cancel his predecessor Barack Obama's landmark Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, was "arbitrary and capricious".

Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who sided with the court's liberal members in a five-to-four decision, stressed it was not an assessment of the correctness of the 2012 DACA program itself.

Instead, the judges said the Trump administration had violated government procedures in the way it sought to quickly rescind DACA in September 2017 based on weak legal justifications.

Immigrants who are part of the 8-year-old program will retain their protection from deportation and their authorization to work in the US－safe almost certainly at least through the November election, immigration experts said.

The ruling also suggested there are legal administrative methods Trump could use to cancel DACA, putting the onus back on the administration if it wants to pursue the issue.

Trump asked on Twitter on Thursday:"Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn't like me?"

He added: "As President of the United States, I am asking for a legal solution on DACA, not a political one, consistent with the rule of law. The Supreme Court is not willing to give us one, so now we have to start this process all over again."

Trump has often criticized US courts and judges－and Roberts himself－for ruling against his policies. Roberts in November 2018 hit back at Trump after the president called a judge who ruled against one of the president's immigration policies an "Obama judge".

But Trump has also won a number of big cases, including a victory on ending subsidy payments to health insurance companies and for his efforts to build a wall along the border with Mexico.

The decision gave a reprieve, though possibly only temporary, to hundreds of thousands of people brought or sent to the US as youngsters. Most of them are young Hispanic adults born in Mexico and other Latin American countries. They grew up in the US, went to school, worked and started families－without ever having legal status.

"It was a great surprise," said Daniel Olano, a 28-year-old Virginia resident who arrived in the United States from El Salvador when he was eight.

"My family and I were expecting the worst," he said with relief.

'Not the end of the battle'

Houston paramedic Jesus Contreras, who came from Mexico as a child, said Thursday's ruling was "not the end of the battle".

"We still have to fight for legislation but right now it is a good feeling to know that we are protected and safe at least for now," he said.

Trump entered office in January 2017 promising to end most immigration and to expel millions who live in the country without legal documents.

Unable to get Congress to agree on legislation to protect longtime resident immigrants, in 2012 the Obama administration turned to an executive order to implement DACA.

It offers people who entered the US as children and grew up there authorization to stay, attend school, work and enjoy public benefits on renewable two-year periods.

The Supreme Court judgment made clear Trump could end DACA by other means, including an executive order.

It brought new calls on Thursday for Congress to pass permanent legislation to help those under DACA, as well as to offer several million more people, including Dreamers' parents, protection from deportation.

Senior Democratic lawmakers Jerrold Nadler and Zoe Lofgren urged the Republican-controlled Senate "to immediately take up and pass H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act, which puts Dreamers and long-term beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status on a pathway to citizenship. The time to act is now".

Agencies, Xinhua and William Hennelly in New York contributed to this story.