The Supreme Court may not hand down a ruling until June of next year, but oral arguments over the future of President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program have just been heard at the court and it doesn't look good for the program.
According to widespread reports, the court's conservative justices including Trump's two picks appear to be ready to strike down the program.
From the Associated Press:
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh were among the justices who indicated that the administration has provided sufficient reason for wanting to do away with the program. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito raised questions about whether courts should even be reviewing the executive branch’s discretionary decisions. [...]
Trump said in his tweet that many program participants are “far from ’angels,” and he falsely claimed that “some are very tough, hardened criminals.” The program bars anyone with a felony conviction from participating. Serious misdemeanors may also bar eligibility.
The primary implication of this is that over 600,000 young immigrants could face deportation if the program is struck down and identifying them for removal would be quite easy for Trump's government since the government knows everything about them.
Recipients of the Obama-era program are not "hardened criminals" as the Associated Press points out. They do not fit into some racist, stereotypical image of immigrants looking for jobs on the side of the street or whatever Trump's supporters think of them. Immigrants enrolled in DACA are in school, have degrees, or jobs; or all of the above. They're pillars of their community.
But you do not have to be a pillar of your community to deserve to stay here, of course, you just have to be a human. Humans aren't illegal.
This will obviously have big implications for the 2020 campaign as well and not just because it's inhumane and cruel. A possible ruling against DACA will have enormous economic implications as schools lose students, businesses lose employees (and customers), and communities lose support.