The Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) targets the almost 4.3 million undocumented parents of citizens and lawful residents, and the second program expands the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), initiative aimed at non-citizens who came to the country as children.
Advertisement
At issue in United States v. Texas were Obama’s 2014 expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that was unveiled in 2012 and the creation of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA).
The issue of illegal immigration has featured prominently in the campaign ahead of the November 8 US presidential election.
A federal judge in Texas ruled in their favour and the fifth USA circuit court of appeals upheld that decision last November. Obama took the executive action in 2014 after continued in action by Congress. The Constitution is clear: The president is not permitted to write laws – only Congress is.
The case was viewed as an important test of the limits of presidential powers and came near the end of the Obama presidency that has been defined by unceasing fights with Republicans in Congress and in state capitals who have fought countless initiatives of the president.
The case has political purchase in an election year in which Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has pledged to round up and deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants, described Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and promised to build a wall along the border. Federal officials said that was Texas’ choice, and not a ground for a lawsuit.
After the states filed suit and shortly before Obama’s plan was to go into effect a year ago, a federal judge in Texas blocked it in February 2015. Hanen’s decision was upheld twice by the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
He stressed that the guidance from the government does not provide any kind of lawful status under immigration law as the aliens remain removable at any time.
At oral arguments, the justices seemed sharply divided over the President’s controversial actions on immigration that could shield some 4 million undocumented immigrants from deportation and make them eligible for work authorization and associated benefits.
Advertisement
“DAPA is an extraordinary assertion of executive power”, Keller wrote in court papers. This is a developing story and will be updated.
