Hundreds of thousands of people living illegally in Southern California were facing a sobering new reality Thursday: the U.S. Supreme Court isn’t coming to their rescue and their fate may be tied more precariously than ever to the outcome of this year’s presidential election.
News that the high court deadlocked, blocking President Obama’s immigration plan from moving forward, quickly spread anxiety across a region with one of the nation’s largest concentrations of unauthorized immigrants.Inland immigrant advocates expressed disappointment about the Supreme Court’s tie vote to block the plan that sought to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.“It’s just devastating to millions of families who are left in immigration limbo,” said Luz Gallegos, community programs director at the TODEC Legal Center, a Perris-based immigrant assistance group. “We feel what our families feel when they are being separated and are coming and calling and asking for help. It just breaks our heart.”Her group will continue helping immigrants to become citizens and register to vote.
It gives us more strength to keep fighting,” Gallegos said.
California Gov. Jerry Brown said the court stalemate “leaves millions of families in America facing a troubled and uncertain future.”
Meanwhile, those calling for a crackdown on illegal immigration hailed the 4-4 vote.
“This is a good day for America because executive overreach was reined in by this decision,” said Robin Hvidston, executive director of Claremont-based We The People Rising, which opposes illegal immigration. “This is a good day for the Constitution. Immigration laws are supposed to go through Congress and be signed by the President.”
Hvidston said Obama had the chance to enact immigration reform in his first term when both houses of Congress had a Democratic majority.
Her group rallied outside Rancho Cucamonga City Hall Thursday to voice support for the decision while opposing a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally.
The court’s ruling leaves in place a Texas federal judge’s order that halted Obama’s plan to offer deportation relief and work permits to more than 4 million immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens or legal residents. The vote also blocks the president’s plan to expand a program he created in 2012 that offers deportation relief and work permits to younger immigrants brought to the country as children.
Texas, joined by 25 other states, sued the administration, arguing among other things that the president went beyond his executive authority. The case divided the nation and now returns to U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, who issued a 2015 injunction that prompted the Supreme Court decision. Eventually, the case could return to the Supreme Court. By then, the next president is likely to have named a successor for Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier this year, leaving the court ideologically split.
In the backdrop of Thursday’s announcement, is a presidential campaign where the Republican presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, has focused intensely on illegal immigration and calls to build a wall along the Mexican border.