MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Arbitrary and capricious - Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts used those words to describe the Trump administration's decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
And with those words, more than 600,000 DACA recipients known as DREAMers will maintain a form of legal status at least for the time being. Roberts joined with the court's liberal justices in a 5-to-4 decision against the administration.
KELLY: DACA recipient Reyna Montoya was in shock after the ruling. She told NPR's Here & Now...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
REYNA MONTOYA: My hands are still shaking right now, and they're sweaty. I think that we've been waiting for this decision for so long.
KELLY: Montoya is the founder and CEO of Aliento, an immigrant aid group in Phoenix. Her family came from Mexico to the U.S. in 2003 when she was a child.
CHANG: The court's ruling leaves open the possibility that DACA could be overturned in the future, which leaves Montoya uncertain.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
MONTOYA: It's a very, like, bittersweet victory knowing that, OK, today, I am fine, but I don't know if I will continue to be fine tomorrow.
KELLY: President Trump tweeted that this and other recent rulings were, quote, "shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or conservatives."
CHANG: Republican Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas tweeted, quote, "if Justice Roberts wants to be a politician, he should resign and run for office."
KELLY: Other members of the GOP were more measured. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said he disagreed with the court but would respect the ruling.
KEVIN MCCARTHY: It just reemphasizes that the House and Senate needs to do their work. The immigration system is broken. Everybody agrees with that. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.