Will top court put up wall to immigration?

More than a year ago, President Obama signed executive actions that would have helped millions of undocumented immigrants who have been in the us for a long time avoid deportation.

Promise Arizona director Petra Falcone (center, at microphone) was at a rally at the U.S. Supreme Court last week to push for the justices to hear the appeal of President Obama’s executive order on immigration. The top United States court has not scheduled oral arguments in the case, but it is expected to render a decision by mid-June, with the U.S. election season in full swing and less than a month before the Republican and Democratic nominating conventions. The politically-charged policy has always been a target for Republicans who refused to approve it in Congress, and the court’s ruling is certain to fuel the already-heated immigration debate in the presidential campaign.

“Today’s announcement…is a step forward for immigrant families and the courageous organizers who have taken action in their defense”, Rodriguez said.

Caught in the middle are the immigrant parents of children who were either born in the United States or otherwise have legal residency.

The proposed Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents would follow an earlier program called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program; that program shielded from deportation people brought to the country illegally as children and affected an estimated 600,000 people.

Even if the president gets his way, the executive actions could be short-lived if a Republican candidate is elected president in November.

Reaction to the court’s decision to hear the case was swift from both sides.

The Supreme Court announced it will decide if President Barack Obama has overstepped his authority on immigration. The court asked the federal government and the 26 states suing it to address whether the executive actions on immigration violate the Constitution’s “take care” clause. The Obama administration argued that letting these undocumented immigrants stay here would open up resources to focus on deporting the people who definitely shouldn’t – like criminals. It would allow them to apply for work permits, provided they were parents of U.S.-born children or legal permanent residents, passed a background check and paid fees.

“The court’s decision could redefine the balance of power between Congress and the president”, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a law professor at Cornell. The government appealed, and on November 9 a divided three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, affirmed the injunction. A ruling against the Obama administration “could open the doors to a wide range of state lawsuits shutting down federal actions on issues far beyond immigration”.

Gormley sees “the real battle lines” in the case as “between President Obama and Congress” and the critical question as whether the President exceeded his power under congressional enacted statutes.