The Obama administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling, issued less than two weeks ago, halting its executive action aimed at preventing the deportation of some illegal immigrants and allowing them to work in the United States.
Friday marks the one-year anniversary of his controversial orders, which many believed would spare as many as 5 million illegal immigrants and their parents from deportation.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently upheld a February injunction by federal Judge Andrew Hanen of the Southern District of Texas, who said key parts of Obama’s immigration plan couldn’t take effect until the courts sorted out a lawsuit filed by 26 states objecting to the plan.
The Obama administration sought to overturn Hanen’s injunction and allow Obama’s immigration action to be implemented while the fight continues in court. But the three-judge appeals panel ruled 2-1 against the administration on Nov. 9.
The key elements at issue are Obama’s decision to expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, and to create a new Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, or DAPA. Those programs remain on hold during the appeals process.
The Obama administration has repeatedly argued that Obama’s actions have a sound legal underpinning, and that they should be implemented while the courts decide.
In the petition to the Supreme Court, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. wrote that the Texas court halted “a federal immigration enforcement policy of great national importance, and has done so in violation of established limits on the judicial power. If left undisturbed, that ruling will allow states to frustrate the federal government’s enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws.”
If the lower courts’ rulings stand, it would “force millions of people — who are not removal priorities under criteria the court conceded are valid, and who are parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents — to continue to work off the books, without the option of lawful employment to provide for their families,” Verrilli wrote. “And it will place a cloud over the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who came to the United States as children, have lived here for years, and been accorded deferred action.”
The Supreme Court usually decides by January whether to accept a case for the upcoming term expiring in June, but it could act sooner.
