Former President Barack Obama’s deferred action immigration orders that would have shielded as many as 4 million undocumented immigrants may be dead in the water, but they are still in the courts.
Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court was deadlocked on deferred action when the justices tied 4-4.
The policy ended up in the courts after 26 states led by Texas opposed the former president’s executive orders.
However, a Bloomberg report stated the states joined forces with the Obama administration and groups that support immigrant rights in late 2016. They sought to freeze a challenge to the outgoing president’s immigration reforms until Obama’s successor Donald Trump takes office.
Commentators say the attempted Obama immigration reforms are likely to die. Trump set illegal immigration as a major part of his campaign. On the campaign trail, he pledged to reverse Obama’s plan to shield in excess of 4 million undocumented immigrants from deportation and provide them with work permits. By working they would have qualified for federal benefits like Medicaid and Social Security.
We have written at length about the two programs that were intended to protect immigrants under Obama’s deferred action immigration orders.
DAPA is Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents. The immigration order would have protected some classes of undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States since 2010 and have children.
DACA is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. It’s aimed at undocumented people who came to the United States before June 15, 2007.
The parties to the legal action agreed it made very little sense to contest the policy given the change in administration, at a federal court hearing in Brownsville, Texas. They requested a judge give Trump a month in office before dealing with the states’ complaints that Obama overstepped his constitutional authority by reversing course on immigration policy without congressional approval.
A judge in Texas blocked the deferred action immigration executive orders as officials prepared to take applications in early 2015. A series of legal hearings led to the impasse in the Supreme Court last summer.
Trump is set to reverse Obama’s reforms, leading the states to drop their challenge, according to Stephen Yale-Loehr, who teaches immigration law at Cornell University Law School.
The so-called “Dreamers” who qualified for the first phase of DACA in 2012 may not be affected by the change in direction and could be able to stay, the Bloomberg article states.
This is a time of extreme uncertainty for undocumented immigrants in Texas. If you are facing deportation you should contact our cancellation of removal attorneys as soon as possible at (512) 399-2311.