The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to take up the Obama administration’s proposed new immigration plan that could shield more than four million people from deportation.
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Its ruling will probably be announced during the official month of crazy-important Supreme Court decisions, June, which means Obama will be handed a big win or a huge loss right before both parties head to their 2016 conventions.
If the justices eventually side with the administration, that would leave roughly seven months in Mr Obama’s presidency to implement his plans.
At issue is the implementation of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) aimed at the approximately 4.3 million undocumented immigrants who are parents of US citizens or lawful permanent residents, as well as an expansion of the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) targeting teenagers and young adults who were born outside of the USA but raised in the country.
So far, the federal courts have sided with the states to keep the administration from issuing work permits and allowing the immigrants to begin receiving some federal benefits.
The appeals court said at least one state had standing to sue, and the challenge to the program had a substantial likelihood of success on the merits.
Democratic officials and immigrants’ advocates praised the court’s action.
“A rather unusual aspect of the case was that, although the lower courts had not decided a constitutional question the states had raised, the Justices added that question on their own”.
The Supreme Court is going to weigh in on President Barack Obama’s sweeping executive actions on immigration. Conservatives on the full appeals court contested that ruling – but they said the legislation actually did originate in the House, so they would have denied the challenge on other grounds.
Immigration has become a hot button issue on the campaign trail as presidential candidates differ on how to handle the country’s some 11 million illegal immigrants.
A federal judge said Arpaio’s complaints were speculative. Obama also wanted to extend that protection to more immigrants who were brought here as children.
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About 235,000 people were deported in the federal fiscal year that ended September 30, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
