OPINION: United States v. Texas: Where Do We Go from Here?

By now, most people have heard about the decision last month by the US Supreme Court that effectively halted the Obama administration’s plans to defer deportations of and grant work cards to millions of undocumented immigrants present in the US. These programs, known as DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents) and expanded DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), would have effectively temporarily blocked the deportations of the millions of people whose children are US citizens or lawful permanent residents (Green Card holders), or who were brought to the US as children and were either in school or the military or had been. (A prior DACA program remains in effect.) These programs were announced by the president in November 2014 after years of Congressional inaction on comprehensive immigration reform, along with a number of other initiatives, most of which have proceeded.

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