Supreme Court to Rule on Obama Immigration Action

The justices said they will consider undoing lower court decisions that blocked the implementation of the president’s 2014 orders on immigration that expanded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and kicked off the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, which would extend deportation relief to millions of parents of children who are USA citizens.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump has repeatedly bashed Obama over his executive actions, saying that if he is elected president, he will undo many of them, especially those involving immigration, within an hour of taking the oath of office.

The Supreme Court announced today they will hear United States v. Texas early next week and are expected to hand down a ruling in June.

The new order granted temporary legal status and work permits to illegal adult immigrants who had been in the USA for five years and who have children who are American citizens or lawful permanent residents.

If the justices eventually side with the administration, that would leave roughly seven months in Obama’s presidency to implement his plans.

The court’s decision to hear the case could impact the 2016 presidential election and the president’s legacy, since it was one of his broader executive orders.

Texas is leading the charge of 26, mostly Republican states, in fighting the executive action. The Court should affirm what President Obama said himself on more than 20 occasions: “that he can not unilaterally rewrite congressional laws and circumvent the people’s representatives”.

Mr Obama, who has little or no hope of passing legislation in the Republican-led Congress, has turned to executive actions to push his agenda.

“Deferred action” would allow millions of immigrants who qualify to continue to work without fear of deportation. The appeal has three main points: the states do not have the right to challenge policy in federal court, the administration followed correct procedure, and the government has broad discretion in the immigration area. Instead a federal judge in Texas took the first step to rein in executive abuse and we believe his injunction will be upheld by the Supreme Court, as it was in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton has pledged to go further than Obama to protect large groups of immigrants from deportation.

“Every day in our parishes and schools and neighborhoods, we see the rising human toll of our failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform, especially on families and children”, he said. As SCOTUSBlog observed, the justices made a decision to add another question to the case: whether Obama’s action violates the president’s power to “take care” in executing the laws of the United States, even if he disagrees with its nature.