The Obama administration said on Tuesday it plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse an appeals court decision that blocked President Barack Obama’s executive actions aimed at shielding millions of illegal immigrants from deportation.
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It said that the action of the President would allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prioritize the deportation of worst offenders instead of those people who are already raising children who have become citizens of the United States.
Texas is leading the 26-state coalition challenging the Executive Orders, which include the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that would keep children brought to the USA illegally by their parents from being deported.
Obama’s executive orders, announced last November but put on hold by the courts, would let up to 4.7 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States without the threat of deportation.
Clinton promised in May to expand Obama’s executive actions if Congress does not overhaul US immigration laws.
The next step for the administration will likely be an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Once the Justice Department files a petition for the high court to hear the case, Texas and 25 other states suing over the programs will have 30 days to file an opposition brief.
The White House said it strongly disagrees with the appeals court ruling.
Yesterday, the Department of Justice announced that rather than seeking a rehearing before the Louisiana-based appellate court, it would appeal directly to the Supreme Court in hopes of settling the matter before President Obama leaves office.
On Monday, the 5th Circuit upheld a February decision by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Brownsville.
A federal appeals court dealt a blow to the Obama administration’s signature immigration initiative with a ruling of 2-to-1 to uphold the injunction from the lower court that blocks the administration from launching its deferred-action program.
“The 5th circuit, if they had decided the case before October 23, they would get into this first term of the Supreme Court, because it’s after October 23rd, it’ll probably get thrown into the next term”, Perez said.
Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, who supports immigration reform, said that the ruling was disappointing but not surprising.
“Immigrant families and their USA children have been waiting anxiously for the Fifth Circuit to rule”, said Karen Tumlin of the National Immigration Law Center.
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Attorneys for the state of Texas had argued that in addition to circumventing Congress and abusing his authority to enact immigration laws, the president’s order would cause the state harm in the cost of providing undocumented immigrants driver’s licenses and other benefits.
