White House Appeals Immigration Case To Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, United States-President Barack Obama’s administration on Friday formally asked the US Supreme Court to uphold measures it enacted shielding four million undocumented migrants from deportation.

Under DAPA, more than 4 million illegal immigrants were to have been granted a three-year stay of deportation and a work permit, which entitled them to Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses and potentially other benefits – a quasi-legal status.

A almost four-year stretch of radio silence from the appeals court that heard the case tested the patience of advocates who were waiting in desperation for a decision.

“We are determined to see these important protections become a reality”, Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said in a statement.

So far, the courts have blocked Obama’s plan – but with time running out his administration, Obama has moved to get the issue to the Supreme Court by June. “Identifying the millions of American citizens, most of whom are children, whose lives would be positively transformed by DAPA helps us understand how vital the policy really is not only to the immigrant community but to the nation as a whole”.

But the executive actions have been caught up in a legal dispute since February and have never been implemented. The immigrants affected are mainly the parents of American citizens and lawful permanent residents. But instead, the appeals court’s 2-1 ruling went farther-the judges held that the administration lacked the legal authority for its actions, not just that it failed to follow procedural formalities.

A federal district court and then a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, in a 2-to-1 decision, agreed with the states’ arguments. Today, independent polling finds that a strong majority of voters across the country and here in Arizona support federal immigration reform with a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

The Supreme Court is expected to give an answer in the summer of 2016.

“Instead of trying to defend an unconstitutional executive order as he winds down his time in office, the president should work with Congress to secure our borders and improve our immigration laws”, said Sen. 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.

“If the Supreme Court takes the case, I expect it will rebuff President Obama’s misreading of his powers under federal law and his refusal to execute the laws faithfully – his core constitutional responsibility”, said John Yoo, a professor of law at the University of California-Berkeley.

The petition made an energetic challenge to the states’ right to sue, arguing that the lower court rulings allowing them into court to pursue their own view of proper immigration policy was “unprecedented and momentous”.