Supreme Court Deadlock Blocks Barack Obama Immigration Plan

UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked Thursday on an immigration plan implemented by President Obama that had shielded millions of undocumented immigrants and granted them the right to work legally in the United States.

The 4-4 vote leaves a lower court's ruling in place, ending the plan Obama put into place by executive action after Congress failed, yet again, to pass a comprehensive immigration bill.

WISCONSIN REACTS

Paul Ryan

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) issued the following statement in response to the Supreme Court’s 4-4 decision in United States v. Texas, which upholds the lower court’s decision that the president’s use of executive action to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants is unlawful:

“Today, Article I of the Constitution was vindicated. The Supreme Court’s ruling makes the president’s executive action on immigration null and void. The Constitution is clear: The president is not permitted to write laws—only Congress is. This is another major victory in our fight to restore the separation of powers.”

Voces de la Frontera

“This is very sad for me,” said José Flores, a factory worker and father of 4 who is the President of Voces de la Frontera. “I have been waiting and fighting for a reform like DAPA for years, but we are not giving up. I refuse to be afraid, to shrink back into the shadows. Our community has to keep fighting.

We have to make sure that pro-immigrant candidates win in November so that we can move immigration reform through the US Congress. We have to keep fighting. The Latino vote in Wisconsin will be decisive and we will remember in November, who stood with us and who stood against our families.”

WALKER OPPOSED

Gov. Scott Walker had been among the governors of 26 states who filed the lawsuit that accused the president of bypassing the separation of powers laid out in the Constitution.

Walker was once famously confronted over his support for the lawsuit while on a campaign stop in Iowa.

TODAY'S EVENTS

In a press conference, President Barack Obama expressed his disappointment at the SCOTUS deadlock that failed to yield a ruling.

"For more than two centuries, welcoming wave after wave of immigrants has kept us youthful and dynamic and entrepreneurial; it has shaped our character and it has made us stronger. But for more than two decades now, our immigration system, everybbody acknowledges, has been broken. And the fact the Supreme Court wasn't able to issue a decision today doesn't just set the system back even further, it takes us further from the country we aspire to be."

Five million unauthorized immigrants — all of them parents of citizens or of lawful permanent residents — were eligible to apply for a program called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA. That program would spare them from deportation and provide them with work permits.

Obama's executive action in trying to solve the status of millions of immigrants had been stridently opposed by Republicans, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who categorized the president's action as ruling by fiat. GOP opponents of the move took to social media to express their elation at the Supreme Court's deadlock that effectively leaves millions of immigrants in limbo.

“Today’s decision keeps in place what we have maintained from the very start: one person, even a president, cannot unilaterally change the law," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a press release. "This is a major setback to President Obama’s attempts to expand executive power, and a victory for those who believe in the separation of powers and the rule of law.”

For Democrats, the decision is a disappointment but they view it as a cause to continue rallying their base. Up until Obama tried to fix the broken immigration system that forced millions into the shadows of society, progressives had bemoaned the inaction of Congress to take on the issue.

The glimmer of hope in the wake of today's decision: It's more of an indecision rather than a precedent-setting ruling, which means the immigration issue could be revisited down the road -- although all but likely not during Obama's presidency.

Still, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton blasted the SCOTUS impasse, reiterating a belief among progressives that Obama acted well within his discretion in taking executive action on the measure.

"Today’s deadlocked decision from the Supreme Court is unacceptable, and show us all just how high the stakes are in this election," Clinton said in a statement. "As I have consistently said, I believe that President Obama acted well within his constitutional and legal authority in issuing the DAPA and DACA executive actions. These are our friends and family members; neighbors and classmates; DREAMers and parents of Americans and lawful permanent residents. They enrich our communities and contribute to our economy every day. We should be doing everything possible under the law to provide them relief from the specter of deportation."