THE 4-4 vote by the Supreme Court was a big blow not only to President Barack Obama’s legacy, but to the hopes and dreams of many undocumented immigrants — including many kababayans and their families. Because it was a tie, the highest court’s ruling leaves in place an appeals court decision which ruled that Obama overstepped his executive authority with the expanded version of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA).
This decision effectively puts a stop to the implementation of Obama’s executive order that hopes to allow almost 5 million undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadow, and be given a temporary permit to work and travel without fear of deportation.
11 million undocumented immigrants are estimated to be living in America, and nearly half of them could have potentially benefitted from programs President Obama announced in November 2014.
As the New York Times reported, Obama’s programs for parents and children – DAPA and expanded DACA – would have protected three categories of unauthorized immigrants:
DAPA (parents)
Unauthorized parents of children who are United States citizens or legal permanent residents born on or before Nov. 20, 2014. To qualify, parents must have been in the United States since Jan.1, 2010.
DACA (children)
Unauthorized immigrants born after June 15, 1981, who were brought to the United States before their 16th birthday and have been in the country since June 15, 2007.
Expanded DACA (children)
Unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children before January 2010.
Obama’s plan executive measure granted DAPA-eligible immigrants authorization to work in the United States for three years at a time.
The Times explained further that the president’s executive actions also expanded the DACA program, which allows eligible young people to apply for deportation deferrals and work permits, to include unauthorized immigrants who entered the United States before January 2010, from the current cutoff of June 15, 2007. This expansion also eliminated the requirement that applicants be younger than 31 years old.
To clarify, those undocumented young people who had qualified for the initial DACA program created in 2012, would not be affected by this Supreme Court case. However, the Times pointed out that they could have also benefited from the decision because the 2014 initiative increased the deferral period to three years from two years.
In my interview with Pinoy Panawagan legal counsel of The Filipino Channel’s daily newscast Balitang America, Atty. Lou Tancinco said that the reason behind this turn of events is because 1) it is a tactical move by Republicans to file the case in a lower court in Texas that is dominated by Republican-leaning judges, joined in by 25 other states governed by the same conservative principles; 2) the vacancy left by Justice Scalia had not been filled up because of the refusal of the Republican-led Senate to even touch the appointment made by President Obama, who could have potentially broke the tie in favor of the president’s executive order.
Tancinco said the fight is not over. The Amercian Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) will appeal the case to the Supreme Court for reconsideration. On the other hand, many kababayans who followed the rules, got in line and paid the fees, lauded the court’s decision.
This ruling by the SC just highlights the importance of the November elections.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
