Democrats celebrated a Thursday Supreme Court ruling protecting “Dreamers” from deportation with “tears of joy” and “a sigh of relief” and said the court was delivering surprising rulings they were happy to support.
“I cried tears of joy a few minutes ago when I heard the decision of the Supreme Court on DACA,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a Senate floor speech.
Schumer said the court “provided a bright ray of sunshine this week” with its decisions.
In addition to upholding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the Supreme Court ruled federal law protected LGBTQ workers from discrimination.
“Who would have thought it would have had so many good decisions in one week?” Schumer said. “Who would have thought. Wow.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said polls showed the vast majority of people supported legalizing Dreamers.
“The DACA decision is something that supports our values as a country,” said Pelosi, a California Democrat. “We were in such dread about what could possibly happen in the court. But this way is the American way. And we are very proud of it.”
The high court Thursday rejected a Trump administration effort to rescind the DACA program created by President Barack Obama in 2012. The program protects thousands of illegal immigrants from deportation if they came to the United States as children and meet other guidelines.
“They can continue to live and work and study in America without fear of deportation, for the moment,” Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said.
Durbin has lead the effort to pass legislation providing a pathway to citizenship for the so-called Dreamers, but Congress has been unable to bridge mostly partisan differences in an overall immigration reform package that deals with the Dreamers and other illegal immigrants.
Durbin urged the Trump administration not to attempt to rescind the program again before the November election and to leave the matter to the next administration instead, no matter who is elected.
A law is ultimately needed to protect Dreamers from deportation permanently, Durbin said.
“Now it’s up to the president and up to us to solve this problem once and for all and do the right thing for them and the future of America,” Durbin said.
