The march, which began in Arlington, Virginia, and culminated at the White House, marked the one-year anniversary since President Obama’s executive order to expand protections for immigrants who came to the U.S.as minors or are parents of USA citizens. It would have allowed more than 4 million undocumented immigrants nationwide to apply for three-year renewable work permits and reprieves from deportation proceedings.
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The Obama administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to rescue the president’s overhaul of the nation’s immigration system.
Most recently, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the states. The program would “defer action” against many undocumented immigrants who have children who were born in the United States.
The program was initially halted in February by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Brownsville, who ruled the administration didn’t comply with the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal regulations are made.
Verrilli’s brief argues that federal law makes clear that immigration policy is set by the federal government, not the states. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court and said that the administration lacked the authority to implement the programs, blocking them from going into effect.
The 26 states seeking to block DAPA and DACA’s expansion programs are Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Being lawfully present would qualify immigrants for Social Security, Medicare, tax credits, and the ability to work legally in the United States.
Smith said Texas would suffer a similarly direct and concrete injury in having to spend millions to provide driver’s licenses to immigrants under the federal program.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas predicted in a statement that his state ultimately would prevail in its challenge and called on Obama to work with Congress rather than “defend an unconstitutional executive order as he winds down his time in office”. Continuing to hold up DAPA hobbles the national economy because it keeps people from working on the books and wastes the time of law enforcement officials, Becerra added. Latino Democratic politicians also urged the Supreme Court to not push a decision on the program to next year’s term. “They should understand the political implications as well. Identifying the millions of American citizens, most of whom are children, whose lives would be positively transformed by DAPA helps us understand how vital the policy really is not only to the immigrant community but to the nation as a whole”.
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If the Court does confirm a right for the states to have sued, it presumably would then move on to decide whether the deferred-deportation policy was likely ultimately to be found illegal.
