Wolf calls DACA ‘unlawful’ after Supreme Court blocked Trump administration from ending program

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said Sunday the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is “unlawful,” just days after the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration from ending the program. 

“What we know is the program is clearly unlawful. And I would point you back to the Supreme Court decision. At no point in that decision did they say that the program was lawful. They simply didn’t like the rationale and the procedures that we used. And I find that a little troubling,” Wolf said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”  

Wolf said the Trump administration is seeking other ways to end the Obama-era program that shields nearly 700,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation. 

“We’re continuing to look at the opinion that the court produced this week, making sure that we adhere to that. But we are going to end an unlawful program,” Wolf said. “As the acting secretary of Homeland Security, I don’t have the luxury to ignore the law. The program’s unlawful. We need to solve it. The president’s begging Congress, has been for the last two and a half years to solve this problem. We’re willing to sit down at the table and negotiate with them.”

The court ruled in a 5-4 decision on Thursday that the administration failed to give an adequate justification for terminating the DACA program. 

The program is open to an estimated 1.3 million noncitizens eligible for DACA by virtue of having been brought to the U.S. as children and who have maintained residency and meet other criteria.  

The Supreme Court’s decision does not prevent the Trump administration from working to rescind the DACA program in the future.