One of the issues that originally attracted some Republican primary voters to the campaign of Donald Trump was his vociferous opposition to immigration and the Obama administrations’ actions regarding it.
In 2014, the Obama administration had granted temporary legal status to nearly 5 million illegal immigrants. The administration’s new rules created a deferred deportation program for parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent resident children if they had been in the country for more than five years. It also expanded protection from deportation to people who came to the U.S. illegally as children and would grant more work permits to high-skilled workers.
Obama’s order also established a new priority system for deporting illegal immigrants, requiring Homeland Security to focus on people serving jail time for criminal offenses. The administration also added more judges to the border region so low-priority illegal immigrants could be released more quickly and those with serious criminal records to be deported.
Most Republicans immediately came out against the actions, citing both concerns with the impact and the questionable constitutionality of the measures. The State of Texas, along with 25 other states, filed suit to stop the executive actions and the case has been winding its way up to the Supreme Court since then. A previous decision by the federal district court ordered the Obama Administration to halt the actions and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s decision. It now heads to the Supreme Court where it will surely attract much attention and potentially have presidential implications.
43 Republicans filed an amicus brief on behalf of Texas and the other states ahead of the Supreme Court hearings scheduled for April 18. Georgia Senators Johnny Isakson and David Perdue were among the group.
“President Obama’s attempt to circumvent Congress by executive order and grant legal status to millions is unconstitutional and unacceptable,” said Senator Isakson. “I have fought against this unlawful proposal from day one and will continue to use any and all options to stop the President from implementing his unconstitutional executive amnesty. If Congress must use the courts to force the President to follow the laws he has sworn to uphold, then so be it.”
“Over the past seven years, we have seen President Obama abuse his authority and act unilaterally to change our country’s immigration laws,” said Senator Perdue. “It is time for this to stop. I applaud Georgia and a majority of states for coming together to stand up against President Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty. As we have seen, there are real national security risks associated with illegal immigration, sanctuary cities, and executive amnesty, and I promised Georgians I will fight on their behalf against this lawlessness. I will not rest until we secure our border and restore the rule of law to our country.”
Missing among the names of signees to the amicus brief are several senators from “purple” states, including Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Susan Collins of Maine. Also missing, a very prominent Senator from Texas and frequent Obama administration critic, Ted Cruz. Most importantly, also missing was the name of any Democrat. The partisanship continues.
