But on Friday, the Justice Department filed an appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to allow Obama’s executive actions to be implemented.
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“One year ago, President Obama took action in the face of Congress’s failure to reform our broken immigration system”.
“The President clearly acted outside the law when he went around Congress to unilaterally change our nation’s immigration laws, and I’m confident the State of Texas will ultimately prevail in this case”, he said in a statement.
Without the Supreme Court’s intervention, millions of people will be forced “to continue to work off the books, without the option of lawful employment to provide for their families”, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. said in the court filing.
Generally, the court must accept a case by January in order to schedule it for oral arguments and a decision before the court’s term ends in June.
Two hours after the appeal was lodged, dozens of immigration advocates rallied in front of the Supreme Court building, chanting in English and Spanish and waving placards. The President ordered federal agents to stop rounding up undocumented immigrants for deportation.
“We believe ultimately that we are on the right side of the law”, said Nora Preciado, a staff attorney at the National Immigration Law Center in a call to the Latin Times, adding that the one-week turnaround by the DOJ was “really speedy”.
A Justice Department spokesman said the government “did not take a position” on Maldef’s latest bid to participate in the case. If the Supreme Court rules in Obama’s favor his programs could begin during the summer.
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.
But the executive actions have been caught up in a legal dispute since February, and have never been implemented.
There are almost 12 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, and an estimated four million would qualify under Obama’s orders.
The program, announced in November, applies to people whose children are either USA citizens or legal permanent residents. Michael, who was born in the USA, but his parents are undocumented immigrants from Bolivia and they now live in Silver Spring, Md.
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“The actions are on hold because of a lawsuit filed by Gov. Greg Abbott”, said Mary Moreno, a spokeswoman for the Texas Organizing Project, an immigrant advocacy group. The justices will consider whether to hear the case once they receive responses from the states, due within 30 days.
