Supreme Court’s Decision to Review Immigration Impacting Valley

At stake in United States v. Texas-the umbrella name for the 26 states that sued to block Obama’s 2014 executive actions-are the legal statuses of almost 5 million undocumented immigrants, who, if the court rules in favor of the Obama administration, could receive temporary work permits and an expedited path to legalization.

The court agreed to hear a challenge to the president’ move to let millions of immigrants living here illegally work in the country legally. “Those limits enacted by Congress were exceeded when the President unilaterally sought to grant “lawful presence” to more than 4 million unauthorized aliens who are in this country unlawfully”.

Republican presidential candidates have talked tough against illegal immigrants.

The president has said the program was the result of years of frustration with Republicans in Congress who had repeatedly refused to support bipartisan Senate legislation to update immigration laws.

The justices said in their order Tuesday that they will also decide whether Obama’s actions violated the constitutional provision requiring the president to “take care that the Laws be faithfully executed”, essentially meaning that they will determine whether current law prohibits Obama from using executive action to enforce broad immigration laws, according to Politico.

Many people in Northwest Arkansas are awaiting the Supreme Court decision. The Court is expected rule by the end of June.

Some court observers saw in the court’s decision to look at Obama’s power under the Constitution a potentially ominous sign.

Sen. Hirono continued saying, “I believe that President Obama’s actions are within his authority, and are in line with immigration actions taken by every President since Dwight Eisenhower”.

In Arizona, nearly half of the 300,000 immigrants estimated to be here illegally are directly impacted by Obama’s action, because they are parents of American-born children.

At a November 20 immigration rights rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to mark the first anniversary of Obama’s actions on deferred deportation, Marly Arevalo told Catholic News Service that she was there “fighting for my rights and the rights of others”.

“We applaud the court’s decision to hear the case, and we hope it fully considers the sound legal reasoning behind the President’s administrative relief”, he added.

The U.S. solicitor general, Donald Verrilli Jr., said in his Supreme Court filing that allowing the lower court rulings to stand would force millions of people “to continue to work off the books, without the option of lawful employment to provide for their families”. But many undocumented immigrants will delay applying until they get some sense of which party is likely to win the White House. “Not just for our homes but in the U.S. We’d be stepping out of the shadow”.