The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday deadlocked over the White House’s plans to temporarily shield from deportation millions of immigrants living illegally in the U.S., likely keeping President Barack Obama’s executive actions on hold for the rest of his term.
The court's 4-4 vote — the late Justice Antonin Scalia's seat remains vacant — leaves a lower court's injunction in place. In the process, it deals a blow to Obama's long-running efforts to overhaul the nation's immigration system and keeps in limbo many families living in the shadows. The impasse could also motivate Hispanic voters ahead of the presidential election, where immigration remains a red hot issue.
In Georgia, immigrants who could have benefited from Obama’s actions said they were fearful Thursday’s high court decision could rip apart their families.
“This breaks our hearts,” said Marie Cruzado Jeanneau, who lives in Lawrenceville and is studying Spanish and business management at Oglethorpe University.
But critics of the administration’s move said the decision was the right one.
“The Supreme Court’s action today leaves in place a decision affirming that President Obama cannot evade the Constitution,” Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens said in a prepared statement. “Our nation’s laws, the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches and the Constitution must be followed.”
Led by Texas, 26 states — including Georgia — fought to block Obama’s executive actions in court, arguing they amount to an unconstitutional end run around Congress. A federal judge in Texas halted the president’s plans and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled in favor of keeping that injunction in place. The Obama administration argued it was acting within its authority, saying it was seeking to refocus its limited resources on deporting serious criminals.
Speaking to reporters in the White House, Obama linked the court’s impasse to Republican Senators’ refusal to consider his nominee for replacing Scalia, Merrick Garland. The president — addressing immigrants who could benefit from his executive actions — said those who don’t have criminal convictions and who are raising U.S.-born children will remain “low priorities” for immigration enforcement.
“Today’s decision is frustrating to those who seek to grow our economy and bring a rationality to our immigration system and to allow people to come out of the shadows and lift this perpetual cloud on them,” he said. “I think it is heartbreaking for the millions of immigrants who’ve made their lives here, who’ve raised families here, who hoped for the opportunity to work, pay taxes, serve in our military, and more fully contribute to this country we all love in an open way.”
Without naming him, Obama then jabbed at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has proposed building a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border at Mexico’s expense and deporting all the estimated 11 million immigrants living without legal permission in the U.S. Obama called those proposals fantasies that would demean “our tradition of being both a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.”
Trump’s campaign had no immediate response. But fellow Republicans hailed the court’s action.
Debbie Dooley, a Buford resident and one of the founders of the Tea Party movement, is disappointed the court did not rule against the Obama administration but said a tie vote is still a victory because it will “uphold the Constitution.”
“This is the next best thing that could happen,” said Dooley, who has endorsed Trump. “It is good that it is on hold because people that originally come to our country illegally — they are violating the law.”
Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is pushing for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants without papers. She called the court’s tie vote “devastating and unacceptable.”
“Because the Supreme Court was unable to reach a decision, five million families will continue to live under the specter of deportation,” she said. “These are our friends and family members; neighbors and classmates; Dreamers; and parents of Americans and lawful permanent residents. They enrich our communities and contribute to our economy every day.”
Set to leave office in January, Obama fought unsuccessfully for bipartisan Senate legislation that would have overhauled the nation’s immigration system. That bill stalled in the GOP-led House in 2013. The following year, Obama proposed three-year work permits and deportation deferrals for people who don’t have legal status but do have children who were born here or are legal permanent residents. To be eligible for the program — called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents or DAPA — they must have lived in the U.S. continuously since Jan. 1 of 2010 and submit to background checks.
About 4 million people would be eligible nationwide. As many as 125,000 of them are in Georgia, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank that evaluates migration policies.
Linda Bonduel of Cumming and her husband, Edward Cervantes, could qualify for DAPA because they have a U.S.-born daughter, said their attorney, Sarah Owings. They fled political persecution in Venezuela in 2003, arriving here on tourist visas and then seeking asylum. They lost their asylum case after a judge ruled their accounts of Cervantes being beaten and kidnapped could not be confirmed, Owings said. The couple, who have been ordered deported, are scheduled to report back to immigration authorities next month, when they could be expelled.
Bonduel has been wondering how they would survive if they are deported to their native Venezuela, which is descending into chaos amid food riots, looting and economic collapse. She is now considering the prospect of having to quit her job at a local cookware company; abandon the Catholic church her family attends; leave behind the home she owns with her husband in Cumming; and move back to her native country.
“Oh my gosh,” she said when she learned of the court’s tie vote. “It’s bad news for us. We hope Hillary Clinton wins in the next election. She is our hope.”
Jeanneau’s family came to Georgia from Peru to start a better life and then overstayed their tourist visas. Jeanneau and one of her sisters have received temporary deportation deferrals and work permits through the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program or DACA. Obama’s executive actions would also expand DACA by making the work permits and deportation deferrals good for three years, up from two. As of March 31, there were 22,729 Georgians approved for the program.
Jeanneau’s parents would be eligible for similar relief under the president’s proposed DAPA program because one of their daughters was born in the U.S. Jeanneau is particularly concerned about her mother because her mother routinely drives without a license to work.
“I’m still afraid — I think more afraid now,” she said.
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