A NATIONAL coalition of local government leaders has submitted an amicus brief with the Supreme Court to urge it to reverse a lower court’s decision that blocks President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
“Withholding and delaying these programs [brings] irreparable harms to family unity, the health and welfare of children and families, our public safety and our American economy,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday, March 8, during a conference call with reporters along with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Birmingham Mayor William Bell. Garcetti co-founded the coalition of about 100 mayors and and local officials, Cities for Action, with de Blasio.
The brief is signed by 118 cities and counties across 35 states; the US Conference of Mayors, which represents more than 1,400 cities; and National League of Cities, an organization representing more than 19,000 municipalities.
“[We] thought it was crucial for cities and counties to get together and speak from the local perspective, and let the Supreme Court know what this means for us,” de Blasio said during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, March 8.
Among signatories include cities in states that are plaintiffs in United States v. Texas, the case that has resulted in a preliminary injunction on Obama’s executive orders to expand deferred action for undocumented immigrants.
Obama first announced his executive actions in November 2014, the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Permanent Residents (DAPA) and expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programs, which would provide deferred action to up to five million undocumented immigrants.
The brief represents an estimated 55 million individuals, 15 million of which are immigrants, more than 1.5 million of whom could be eligible for programs under the executive order.
“We’re the closest ones to the immigrant communities,” said Bell, who was among five mayors that led the effort to organize cities and counties to support the brief. “We know the issues that they’re faced with better than the state government, and we can no longer make millions of immigrants who qualify under the president’s [programs] wait. We’ve got to take some action now.”
Austin Mayor Steve Adler in a statement said Texas would see a $38 billion increase in its economy and the creation of 4,800 jobs per year throughout the next decade if Obama’s actions are implemented, while the brief contends that relief for these eligible immigrants would contribute more than $800 million per year to state and local government economies.
“Almost half of our undocumented population is eligible for programs that would do that, and these parents and young folks are assets to our city…. Keeping families together just makes good sense for Austin,” Adler said.
In New York, de Blasio said an estimated 250,000 undocumented immigrants would be eligible for the expanded programs.
“There are so many immigrants who contribute in so many ways to our cities and counties, and in New York City, we know of almost half a million undocumented New Yorkers who we see as families, we see as neighbors. And at this moment, they need the help that would be provided by President Obama’s executive action, but that can’t happen until the issue is resolved in the court,” de Blasio said.
The Supreme Court announced in January that it would determine the constitutionality of DAPA and expanded DACA. While the Court has yet to make a decision, immigrant communities and advocacy organizations have urged individuals who would qualify for the programs to continue preparing for its implementation.
Proponents of the executive order have also said that implementation of the programs would help keep families together.
“[It’s] important for us to highlight [for] the justices of the Supreme Court how this is not about policies as much as it’s really about people, and it’s about promise. This was legal action taken and it is time for us to recognize our destiny, again, as a nation of immigrants and one of laws. And we praise President Obama for that and look forward to success in court,” Garcetti said.
