Immigration executive order hits ‘speed bump’ say proponents

By Mason Harrison
Contributing Writer

personal loan long island Three months after President Barack Obama announced the expansion of federal authority to stave off deportations for millions of undocumented youths and their parents, a federal judge in Texas upended that authority February 16 in a ruling that squashes the president’s broadening of a program designed to increase the number of undocumented young adults who may remain in the country and to, now, include the parents of undocumented youths who arrived in the United States with their children in tow.

Last fall, the Department of Homeland Security issued new policies to widen the government’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA, to eliminate the age cap loan com for undocumented young adults who may qualify to remain in the country who do not pose a security risk. This spring, federal authorities plan to provide provisions to allow the parents of those young adults to also remain in the country, under the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Legal Permanent Residents.

But Judge Andrew Hanen enjoined the government’s efforts to expand the DACA program and institute, for the first time, the program for parents of undocumented youths, commonly known as DAPA. Hanen ruled that homeland security officials lack congressional authority to expand immigration policies. The ruling came just hours before the government began accepting installment loan types the new applications under DACA.

Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, called Hanen’s ruling “nothing more than a speed bump on the road to full implementation [of the expanded DACA and DAPA programs],” adding, “The law is on our side.” America’s Voice is an immigration reform group based in Washington, D.C. Sharry, along with Marshall Fitz, of the Center for American Progress, and Shiu-Ming Cheer, of the Immigration Law Center, participated in a February 17 briefing for media outlets blasting the judge’s ruling.

Jeh Johnson, the secretary of homeland security, vowed, within hours of Hanen’s decision, to appeal the ruling to the 5th Circuit Court of fast cash today 1.com Appeals, based in New Orleans. Hanen’s ruling follows a lawsuit brought by more than 20 states to halt the new immigration plans, arguing compliance with each program would drain state coffers and that the programs are illegal, at best, and unconstitutional, at worst.

Fernando Lopez, an organizer with the New Orleans-based Congress of Day Laborers, says “hundreds of [our] members and [their] families…will be affected by this ruling and thousands in New Orleans.” Lopez says the group is disappointed state officials in Louisiana joined Texas and other states in challenging the immigration plans, calling the effort “anti-immigrant attacks of right wing politicians” and promises to “defend the civil rights and cash advance first niagara dignity of our loved ones, family, and community.” Julie Mao, staff attorney for the group, says it plans to file a friend of the court brief during the appeals process.

Cheer, an attorney, with the Immigration Law Center, urges undocumented immigrants to continue preparing applications for DACA and DAPA despite Hanen’s decision thwarting their implementation. “Some people might say ‘Why should I sign up for a program that’s temporary?,” she says, or one that might not be allowed to stand if opponents are successful in challenging the changes in court. But Cheer echoes fellow reform advocates in believing Hanen’s ruling will not withstand federal appeal.

Fitz, loans with bad credit history no fees vice president for immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, called the lawsuit, brought by Republican governors, “a political attack disguised as a lawsuit.” Fitz asserts the states backing the suit are among the jurisdictions with the lowest number of immigrant populations and therefore will be the least affected by implementation of the new policies. “But the states with the highest numbers of immigrants,” Fitz says, “are the ones who are actually preparing to implement the changes.” Fitz, however, is optimistic and says, “all people eligible [for the new programs] will have their day.”

This article originally published in the February 23, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.