Ruling on Obama’s immigration actions due by June

“These kids are going to be a blessing for this country”, he said, speaking of young people who have been living in this country without legal status. The court will decide if parents with children born in the USA can stay.

Administration officials predicted that could take anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months.

Beatriz Salas has lived and worked in the US for two decades.

A win for the Obama administration would spur those on the right to push for the need to have a Republican in the White House to appoint more conservative justices. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has also said that he would support and expand the executive order.

Texas, Oklahoma and 24 other states had challenged the order, which led to the nationwide injunction blocking its implementation. “Texas would incur millions of dollars in costs”, the state said in its brief to the Supreme Court.

“The president’s program has been delayed for far too long by this political lawsuit and the clearly erroneous decisions of the lower courts”, said Elizabeth Wydra, chief counsel of the Congressional Accountability Center. Even as Trump has made immigrant-bashing a hallmark of his campaign, other Republicans have argued that the party must attract Hispanics.

Critics say President Obama’s Executive Order rewards breaking the law.

“We need to close the gate properly, fix the broken levee, kind of like New Orleans when it got flooded, so that we properly address what to do with the situation that we have at hand”.

“The courts decision could redefine the balance of power between Congress and the president, ” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a law professor at Cornell.

By agreeing to review the “deferred action” case on immigration, the Supreme Court is not only weighing in on the reach of presidential power, but choosing to insert itself into a hot-button issue that has always been debated across this country.

It’s likely the Supreme Court could rule on the case by summer.

Oral argument for United States v. Texas is expected to commence in April, with a decision handed down in June-right around the time that the candidates for each party will be chosen, and their platforms (and attack ads) have begun to coalesce.

Obama’s expanded program for people brought here as children was hours away from being launched past year when a judge put it on hold, so ostensibly, the administration could flick the switch on nearly overnight with little additional preparation. The actions shield certain parents and children of citizens and legal residents from removal and allow them to apply for
work permits.

The president’s order also calls for a program for parents, known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents or DAPA.

If the Supreme Court allows Obama’s actions to remain in effect, the administration has said it will move quickly to enact the policy before the president leaves office next January.

Advocates said they see the pivot point as a reflection of the seesaw nature of Obama’s record on the issue.