Today, immigration, civil rights, and labor groups joined the legal effort to defend President Obama’s recent executive action on immigration by filing an amicus (“friend-of-the-court”) brief in the case, State of Texas v. United States.
Twenty-five states are currently suing the President over executive action, a case which will receive its first hearing January 15th. Just before Christmas, a similar lawsuit filed by Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio was thrown out of court because Arpaio and his lawyer failed to demonstrate standing. Legal experts — including conservatives — widely agree that executive action is legal, and in fact every president since Eisenhower has used his powers of office to affect immigration policy.
Today’s amicus brief was filed by the National Immigration Law Center, the American Immigration Council, American Immigration Lawyers Association, Define American, National Immigrant Justice Center, New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, Service Employees International Union, Southern Poverty Law Center, and United We Dream. It provides economic, fiscal, and moral reasons to support executive action, and includes powerful testimonials about the potential beneficiaries of executive action.
As Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said in a press statement:
President Obama’s executive action isn’t just about policy — it’s about people. A court has been asked to block a policy that will keep families together and improve our economy. Any delay to implementation of the new deferred action initiatives wouldn’t just hurt immigrants, it would hurt all of us. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Read the amicus brief here or below:
