The American Medical Association once again stressed its support for allowing "Dreamers" to remain in the country as the U.S. Supreme Court took up the issue.

The court heard arguments Tuesday on whether to invalidate the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows immigrants who were brought into the U.S. illegally as children to avoid deportation, NPR reported. President Donald Trump is seeking to end the program. However, a wide range of business groups have voiced support for it, noting that many of the roughly 700,000 immigrants it protects are productive workers and citizens. https://n.pr/2XfynGA

AMA is among DACA's defenders. In a statement released a day before the court took up the case, association President Patrice Harris said her group was one of 32 health organizations that signed into an amicus brief urging the justices to preserve the program, with some 27,000 Dreamers in the health care profession alone.

"Eliminating the DACA program would strike at the heart of our nation's ideals, upend our immigration system, and harm children brought here by their families or who arrived as unaccompanied minors," she said. "It also would reverse progress toward greater health equity and diversity within the physician workforce, which makes us all healthier."

For his part, Trump has shown little interest in backing down. In a tweet Tuesday, he said many people benefiting from DACA were "far from ‘angels.'" He added that Democrats in Congress would reach a deal with his administration to allow Dreamers to stay if the court rules against the program.

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