Obama touts Supreme Court decision to uphold DACA and says next step is to elect Biden

“Eight years ago this week, we protected young people who were raised as part of our American family from deportation,” Obama tweeted Thursday. “Today, I’m happy for them, their families, and all of us.”

“We may look different and come from everywhere, but what makes us American are our shared ideals and now to stand up for those ideals, we have to move forward and elect @JoeBiden and a Democratic Congress that does its job, protects DREAMers, and finally creates a system that’s truly worthy of this nation of immigrants once and for all,” he added.

The court ruled earlier this week by a margin of 5-4 against the Trump administration’s effort to end Obama’s executive order providing protection from deportation to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children.

“Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients,” Chief Justice John Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote for the majority. “That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner. The appropriate recourse is therefore to remand to DHS so that it may consider the problem anew.”

Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his dissent that the majority ruling was “incorrect” and “would hamstring all future attempts to undo actions that exceed statutory authority.”

“Today’s decision must be recognized for what it is: an effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision,” Thomas wrote.

Trump said Friday that his administration would submit new paperwork to try again to rescind DACA.