With the lower courts blocking Obama’s plan to shield as many as 5 million immigrants in the country, the administration has turned to the Supreme Court.
Just recently, a federal appeals court in New Orleans upheld an injunction against Obama’s plan by a Texas-based judge. Obama had issued order to protect parents of children who are legal permanent residents or citizens apart from others who came to the country as illegal immigrants too.
Given the 2-1 ruling by the 5th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department said that it will appeal to the high court. The plan set in motion by Obama in November last year has been deemed by Republicans as illegal executive overreach and 26 states challenged it in court.
In response, the administration stated that it was well within its rights to stop the deportation of particular groups for illegal immigration, which included children that were brought in the United States illegally.
This ruling will make it difficult for the implementation of the executive action by Obama by the time he leaves office in 2017. This is because the appeals could take months and based on what happens next, it will go back to the Texas federal court again.
What makes matters worse is that the Department of Homeland Security has limited resources. With almost 11.3 million removable aliens, Congress has only provided enough resources for them to remove about 400,000 ever year. This was expressed clearly by Judge Carolyn Dineen King.
But the majority opinion by both Judge Jerry Smith and Jennifer Walker Elrod disagreed that a district judge had abused his discretion with a nationwide order. They also rejected the argument that the states did not have standing to challenge Obama’s executive orders.