Groups Hail Court’s Decision to Hear Obama Immigration Case

With some of his major legislative initiatives suffocated by Republican lawmakers, the Democratic president has resorted to executive action to get around Congress on issues including immigration, gun control and the Obamacare law.

Advocates said they see the pivot point as a reflection of the seesaw nature of Obama’s record on the issue. This will be the administration’s last chance to put into affect measures that would shield some four million undocumented migrants from deportation. It’s not a permanent solution. These documents would also allow illegal aliens to obtain various public welfare benefits like Obamacare, and also to file amended tax returns covering the past three years to obtain checks from the government as a form of federal welfare. “Not just for our homes but in the U.S. We’d be stepping out of the shadow”.

The Obama administration asked the high court to intervene in the case late a year ago, after a federal judge and appeals court blocked the president’s 2014 executive order allowing the parents of USA citizens and lawful residents to stay in the country.

But under DACA/DAPA, DHS made a promise that it would not enforce the law against these classes of people, amounting to 1.2 million qualifying persons under DACA and 4.3 million qualifying persons under DAPA. Under the order, they will get working permits and receive some federal benefits. But Neumann-Ortiz said the legal jurisdictions that have been involved so far are untra-conservative and biased. Consistent with standard practice, the New Orleans-based appeals court did not rule on the constitutional question, since the case had been decided on lesser (that is, statutory) grounds.

If the court rules in favor of the Obama administration, the president could start granting amnesty during his final months in office, a move that would surely escalate debate in a presidential contest already heavily focused on immigration.

It’s part of an immigration policy President Barack Obama has been trying to expand through executive order.

SCOTUS experts predict justices will hear United States v. Texas in April, and likely hand down a ruling in June.

Many people in Northwest Arkansas are awaiting the Supreme Court decision.

White House officials said they were pleased by the courts decision to hear their case, and they expressed optimism that the justices would eventually clear the way for the presidents actions to be carried out.

The program created by the president would grant legal status to illegal immigrants who are the parents of USA citizens and lawful permanent residents.

Republican Donald Trump has proposed deporting all people who are living in the US illegally, an idea embraced by some other GOP candidates and dismissed by others.

However, Roldan said the justices will look into more than President Obama’s authority to enact that immigration policy. He also announced the expansion of a program that affects people who came here illegally as children.

“It’s potentially huge”, said Stephen Legomsky, professor at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and former chief counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.