NPR
By Richard Gonzales
October 28, 2015
Nearly
a year ago, the Obama administration expanded protections to certain
immigrants and their parents living here illegally. States, led by
Texas, sued and won an initial
victory to block implementation. The case is now stalled in the 5th
Circuit Court of Appeals and some advocates suspect the court's delay is
deliberate.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
It's
been almost a year since President Obama proposed easing the threat of
deportation for millions of immigrants and their families. And for most
of that time, the move
has been held up in a federal appeals court. The drawn-out legal
process may mean that the president's executive actions won't be enacted
before the end of his term. NPR's Richard Gonzales has more.
RICHARD GONZALES, BYLINE: The federal courthouse in New Orleans is home to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Chanting in Spanish).
GONZALES:
Last week outside the courthouse, about a dozen or so protesters
celebrated the end of a nine-day water-only fast. It's part of a
campaign to draw attention
to the legal battle over the fate of the president's immigration plan.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Singing in Spanish).
GONZALES:
One of the fasters is a 21-year-old college student, Jannet Ramirez.
She was only a toddler when her parents arrived here from Mexico.
Ramirez says she grew
up in Arkansas with a constant fear that her undocumented parents could
be deported on any given day.
JANNET
RAMIREZ: Absolutely. There have been times where my mother has been
pulled over by police, and thankfully, she only got a ticket. But if my
parents are ever to
get arrested, the city where I live in does have a policy of calling
ICE. And if ICE wants to, they can take them off to a detention center
and deport them.
GONZALES:
Ramirez is protected from deportation under a 2012 Obama program that
covered about a quarter of a million immigrants brought here as
children. Her parents would
have benefited from President Obama's attempt to expand that program to
as many as four million immigrants. That expansion would've included
work permits and protection from deportation. But the state of Texas,
along with 25 other states, filed a lawsuit.
In
February, Federal Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, slapped an
injunction on the program. That's how it landed before a three-judge
panel in July at the 5th
Circuit. The court usually takes 60 days to issue its rulings. It's now
three months, and there's still no decision. David Leopold is a past
president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He says the
appellate court, known to be conservative, is
dragging its feet.
DAVID LEOPOLD: Justice delayed is justice denied, and that's what this delay represents to me.
GONZALES:
Even if the Supreme Court gets the case soon, a decision wouldn't come
until June 2016 at the earliest, says Josh Blackman, who teaches
constitutional law at
the South Texas College of Law. He also filed a brief opposing the
president's executive actions.
JOSH BLACKMAN: I can't see the judges being in a hurry to get into this mess three months before the general election.
GONZALES:
Immigration activists say a court delay would continue to galvanize
supporters of immigration reform in an election year. Attorney David
Leopold says a lot is
riding on getting any ruling out of the 5th Circuit.
LEOPOLD:
Unless the case gets from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to the
United States Supreme Court in enough time for it to be heard this term,
we're not going to
get a final ruling from the Supreme Court on the president's executive
actions possibly until June of 2017, and that's months after he leaves
office.
GONZALES:
That means the next president - Democrat or Republican - would decide
whether or not to continue the court fight over Obama's immigration
actions. Richard Gonzales,
NPR News.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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