The Obama administration said Tuesday that it would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider a controversial immigration program the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down on Monday.
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President Obama said he would appeal the court’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, a decision which Attorney General Fox welcomes.
In the 2-1 decision on Monday, a three-judge panel for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the states had grounds to sue, in part, because they would incur millions of dollars in losses and likely succeed in their lawsuit.
Thrusting the country’s top court into the role of arbiter in a emotionally charged political debate, the Justice Department said it would challenge lower court rulings that blocked Obama’s efforts to reform immigration policy.
The White House strongly disagrees with the courts ruling and they are now in the process of exploring their legal options. “The 5th Circuit majority misunderstands the discretion given to the executive under existing immigration law which the Supreme Court itself has explicitly recognized”, she said. Obama has promised the American Hispanic community he would push for immigration reform before he leaves office in 2017.
An estimated 20,000 undocumented residents in Kentucky were left in limbo this week after a federal appeals court upheld an injunction on President Obama’s executive action meant to shield millions from deportation.
“I have every confidence that the Court will find the actions lawful”, he said in a statement.
DACA gives illegal crossers who entered the country before their 16th birthday and before June 2007 an exemption from deportation and a possibility to apply for a two-year work permit. Instead, they say, the president should be working with Congress and enforcing the immigration laws already in place.
The administration’s decision was widely expected, and sets up a potential high-stakes court battle over Obama’s immigration policies in the midst of an election year.
Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott praised the ruling, arguing that Obama should abandon his “lawless executive amnesty program” and start enforcing the law.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, which oversees federal deportation cases against immigrants, said the agency was reviewing the court’s opinion to determine how to proceed.
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The administration claims the programs are within the executive branch’s discretionary power and would allow the Department of Homeland Security to focus on deporting criminal offenders rather than law-abiding groups with strong ties to the United States.
