DACA's Day in Court
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2019
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that could have an enormous effect on the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people known as Dreamers. Back in 2017, the Trump administration ended DACA, a program created by the Obama administration to protect Dreamers, by saying it was unlawful and unconstitutional, and that it could not be successfully defended in court. Now, with DACA getting its day in court, who are the key players on both sides of the case? And what is the actual issue justices will be weighing?
Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, who covers the courts and the law for Slate.
Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.
Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, Danielle Hewitt and Mara Silvers.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Here's a bit of Washington trivia for you. |
| 0:07.3 | Name federal legislation that Republican Governor Mike Huckabee, the Wall Street Journal |
| 0:11.2 | editorial board, and President Barack Obama all seemed to agree on 10 years ago. |
| 0:18.3 | Give up? |
| 0:19.4 | The House of Representatives is debating and voting on the Dream Act this evening. |
| 0:24.4 | The answer is immigration reform, at least for dreamers. |
| 0:29.4 | Dream stands for development, relief, and education for alien minors. |
| 0:33.9 | It would allow the children who enter the United States illegally before age 16 legal |
| 0:40.4 | status to stay. Back in 2010, Congress was trying to pass a law that would allow these dreamers, |
| 0:47.6 | kids whose parents brought them to the U.S. illegally, to stay in the U.S., join the military, |
| 0:53.2 | go to school. But when this bill got join the military, go to school. |
| 0:58.7 | But when this bill got to the Senate, the Dream Act, it failed. |
| 1:03.2 | After all the votes were counted, Democrats held this press conference. |
| 1:10.0 | Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, he got up in front of a lectern and quoted a Langston Hughes poem. |
| 1:16.8 | The bottom line is, you know, what happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun or does it explode? This dream is going to explode. |
| 1:21.5 | Since then, the dream has exploded into a years-long political battle. |
| 1:35.0 | First, President Obama decided to move ahead without Congress. He signed this executive order, |
| 1:40.2 | offering Dreamers deferred action on their immigration status, meaning the U.S. wouldn't try to remove these people from the country. The order became known as DACA. Then when President |
| 1:45.8 | Donald Trump took office, he pulled the plug on that executive order, leaving nearly 700,000 |
| 1:51.4 | dreamers wondering what would happen next. Now, the third branch of government has been dragged into this fight. |
| 2:02.9 | The Supreme Court is hearing arguments about DACA today, which is why I called up Slates Mark Joseph Stern. |
| 2:10.7 | How much do we know about how the public feels about DACA, the Deferred Action Program? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.