Immigration Reform Update: Obama Executive Order Heading To US Supreme Court?

The Supreme Court of the United States could decide as early as Friday if it will hear arguments on President Barack Obama’s decision to stop the deportation of more than 4 million immigrants. The November 2014 executive action was blocked shortly after it was made by a suit filed by Texas and 25 other Republican-led states, Reuters reported. The Obama administration was hoping to overturn a November 2015 appellate decision upholding a district court ruling that halted the executive action. The justices are expected to discuss the case Friday.

The executive order in question focuses on immigrants without criminal records who came to the U.S. illegally as children or who were parents of U.S. citizens, affording them work permits and certain benefits as well, Politico reported. If the court decides to take up the case, arguments could be scheduled for April and a decision would likely come by the end of June. That would allow the action to be implemented before his departure from the White House.

Obama’s executive actions have thwarted and dismayed many Republican lawmakers, who argue Obama is trying to find a way around Congress. "Executive agencies are not entitled to rewrite immigration laws,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in court papers, according to Reuters.

Republicans have also chastised Obama’s use of executive orders on gun control, which attempt to stymie the number of mass shootings in the U.S. such as the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, where more than 20 children were killed. Obama has defended his executive orders, saying they are a way to bypass commonplace Congressional gridlock.

If the Supreme Court decided not to hear Obama’s immigration case, the executive order would likely die. The Obama administration has said if the court lets the appeals court ruling stand, it would allow states to thwart national efforts to enforce immigration laws.