Election-year clash on immigration heads to Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will hear United States v. Texas a lawsuit brought by a bloc of states and Republican officials that challenges changes to immigration policy that President Obama announced in 2014. A divided appeals court panel agreed, saying that the power the administration claimed would allow it “to grant lawful presence and work authorization to any illegal alien in the United States”.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on the president’s actions in April, and likely will decide by late June.

Verrilli said that lower court ruling “will force millions of people – who are not removal priorities under criteria the court conceded are valid, and who are parents of us citizens and permanent residents – to continue to work off the books, without the option of lawful employment to provide for their families”.

The Obama administration says that the actions are a valid exercise of prosecutorial discretion and that Texas and the states lack the legal harm, called “standing”, to challenge them in Court.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid welcomed the court’s decision to hear the case and said Obama’s executive actions relied on well-established constitutional authority.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, however, said the Supreme Court’s decision to review the case meant it “recognizes the importance of the separation of powers”.

 The Supreme Court will be making judgements on a number of issues in coming months, including cases on abortion, affirmative action, public unions, voting rights and religious liberty.

If the high court rules in favor of the administration, Obama will have just half a year to implement his immigration measures before his term ends in January 2017.

Obama said he was spurred to act on his own by Congress’ failure to pass comprehensive immigration legislation.

The two leading Democratic presidential hopefuls, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, said the court should uphold Obama’s action.

“Our broken immigration system is bad for workers, families, and businesses”, said Jose P. Garza, the executive director of the Workers’ Defense Project, which advocates for immigration reform and better conditions of laborers. He also announced the expansion of a program that affects people who came here illegally as children. That would have pushed the court’s ruling to 2017, after Obama has left office.

Obama’s plan, offered after years of total stalemate with the Republican-led Congress – would shield over 4 million undocumented immigrants now residing in the U.S. from immigration, including numerous 50,000 undocumented Irish living here today. They worry that a Republican successor to the White House next year would dismantle the controversial initiative and reverse course by taking stronger actions on immigration enforcement.