Obama Appeals Executive Amnesty Ruling to Supreme Court

While the ruling from the federal appeals court came months after it was expected, the swift filing for Supreme Court review from the Department of Justice means the Supreme Court’s procedures could allow for the case to be heard and decided this term-by the end of June 2016. Immigration reform and at least these executive actions were important to President Obama’s second term goals and legacy and the injunction has been a blow to his plans.

Texas and 25 other states suing the administration over the programs have 30 days to formally file their own brief, in which they would likely ask the court to turn down the appeal.

The case centers on the question of whether the administration’s actions are a matter of prosecutorial discretion – the executive branch deciding which immigrants to deport, on a case-by-case basis – or an attempt to unilaterally alter the nation’s immigration laws. But the states have said it is an illegal power grab by the president, carrying out a program that Congress would not authorize. So far, the federal courts have sided with the GOP-led states and effectively blocked the plan.

At issue is the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program, which Obama said would allow people who have been in the United States more than five years and who have children who are in the country legally to “come out of the shadows and get right with the law”. Last February, Judge Andrew S. Hanen of the U.S. District Court for Southern District of Texas provided Abbott a victory by issuing a temporary injunction on DAPA and DACA’s expansion, which paused the federal government from implementing the programs.

“I have no idea what would happen to our daughter Heather if we were deported”, Madai said in an email sent by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement and the National Partnership for New Americans, two advocacy groups. “It will force millions of people… who are parents of USA citizens and permanent residents to continue to work off the books, without the option of lawful employment to provide for their families”.

Yet, a dozen measures set in place by the Obama administration Nov 20, 2104 are now still in effect, and 7 to 9 million people are safe from deportation, while they wait for the Supreme Court’s judgment.

Technically, the case has reached the Supreme Court while still in a pre-trial stage. The immigrant from Mexico, who’s been in the USA for more than a decade, would qualify for the DAPA program because one of her three children is a US citizen. Both courts have kept the program from being implemented.

John Scalise, the No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives, said in a Twitter message that the court judgement was “a major triumph for the rule of law”. One year since their adoption, Obama’s immigration measures seem to have paid off. A report shows that deportations plunged from 410,000 in 2012 to 230,000 in 2015.