Dear Editor,
Immigration activists and relatives of undocumented immigrants are up in arms over a Texas court ruling blocking the implementation of President Obama’s executive order granting temporary relief to them. Guyanese and Indian American lawyers and immigration advocates in Queens are condemning the judge’s ruling and are forming alliances with other ethnic groups to plan a course of action in relation to the ruling. Separately, immigrant groups and their supporters around the US are protesting the temporary injunction on the executive order of last November that provides temporary relief from deportation to five million undocumented residents, including thousands of Guyanese. The White House on February 23 filed for a stay on the ruling and simultaneously filed an appeal in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which has oversight over the Texas Federal Court.
The US District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in Texas issued the injunction on February 16 in response to a lawsuit by 26 states which claimed that the President’s executive order was unconstitutional and would provide a burden to their state and local governments. In keeping with judicial protocol, Judge Hanen himself will decide whether to issue the stay on his injunction; it would be unusual for a judge not to issue a stay given that a matter is under appeal.
Obama’s executive order which expands the DACA programme, would allow undocumented applicants who arrived in the country before 2010 to legally work, drive and attend college, while also gaining relief from deportation. Previously, the President had issued an order granting relief to undocumented children who grew up and/or studied in the US. The new order grants relief to adults and also allows undocumented residents who have US citizen or legal permanent resident children to apply for the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA). There are about 11 million illegal immigrants in the US.
The rest of the undocumented immigrants would be in limbo; those who committed crimes would ineligible for relief and would be deported. Obama has deported more immigrants than the previous four Presidents combined. The President’s office has said that both DACA and DAPA will add an estimated $100 billion to the US economy over the next decade.
Should Judge Hanen issue a stay, and it is surprising he has not done so as yet, DHS can begin accepting applications for both the expanded DACA and DAPA. But the stay is likely to be temporary until the circuit rules and it may not go the White House’s way. Immigration activists and Guyanese lawyers and community leaders fear the temporary court actions may deter DACA/DAPA-eligible recipients from applying for the programme for fear of providing information that could make it easier for officials to pick them up for deportation.
The White House is gung ho about the appeal. A spokesperson said: “We will seek that appeal because we believe that when you evaluate the legal merits of the arguments, there is a solid legal foundation for the president to take the steps that he announced late last year to reform our broken immigration system. That’s consistent with the way that previous presidents over the course of several decades have used their executive authority and that is why we’re going to continue to pursue this case through the legal system.”
In addressing a huge immigrant crowd in Miami, President Obama told immigrants not to be disheartened by legal wrangling. He urged them to keep planning for eventual relief, professing confidence that his deportation directives won’t be thrown out in court. He said: “This is just one federal judge. We have appealed it very aggressively. We’re going to be as aggressive as we can.”
The President said he expected to win when a US circuit court hears his appeal that is likely to take at a minimum a few months. He added that his administration will “take it up from there” if the appeal fails, suggesting an appeal to the Supreme Court if the Circuit Court rules against him. He said at each stage of the process, the White House believes “it has the better argument on the issue of granting relief to illegal immigrants.”
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
