The implementation of the executive action of the President seems unlikely as it received a 2-1 decision from New Orleans’ 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It upheld a Texas-based federal judge’s earlier injunction.
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Civil rights campaigner and United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, who is in Milwaukee on Tuesday for a march against the “anti-immigrant rhetoric” in the Republican presidential debates, said the court’s decision was “fundamentally incorrect”. They cite that the “Obama administration had failed to abide by federal rule-making requirements”. “Enough slowing down sound legal action; the Supreme Court should take up this case as soon as possible so that the country can reap all of the benefits that would come from these crucial initiatives”.
Rather than appeal for a re-hearing, the National Immigration Law Center said that the administration should request a Supreme Court appeal immediately, according to Marielena Hincapie, as it directly affects those children who are already USA citizens because their parents would not be deported, at least temporarily.
In a controversial move a year ago, Obama resorted to his executive authority to circumvent Congress and push forward immigration reforms by seeking to provide as many as five million illegal immigrants with work permit while shielding the majority of them from deportation. Obama took executive action in 2014 to enact his plan, which is known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and also would protect law-abiding Hispanics from deportation.
“I think they clipped our wings a little bit, our hopes of getting ahead”, said 52-year-old Guadalupe Vega, an immigrant from Mexico who lives in Pasadena, and has been in the United States for 25 years.
The lawsuit challenged two programs included in President Obama’s orders, including the creation of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents and an expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
“This is very, very rare that a single judge would enjoin the president and that that judge would be upheld by an appeals court”, the judge said. “It is frustrating and maddening that anti-immigrant, conservative politicians continue hurting our families and putting their own political interests ahead of the well-being of our country and the values it was founded upon”.
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They acknowledged an argument that an adverse ruling would discourage potential beneficiaries of the plan from cooperating with law enforcement authorities or paying taxes. If the appeals court had sat on the case for several more months, it might have made it impossible for the administration to appeal to the Supreme Court before the end of President Obama’s term.
