IT MAY not be the end, or even the beginning of the end. But a ruling of the US Court of Appeals in New Orleans on November 9th to put a stay on Barack Obama’s executive action (a kind of presidential decree) on immigration has left one of the president’s most consequential policies in a tight spot. The best he—and some 4m undocumented people who stand to benefit from the plan—can hope for is that the Supreme Court resuscitates it before his presidency ends, in 14 months.
The verdict, reached by a 2-1 margin, upheld an earlier ruling by a district court in Texas, and was anticipated, given the appeals court’s previous deliberations on aspects of Mr Obama’s plan. Launched by executive fiat in November 2014, it includes a promise of temporary reprieve from deportation to those who have lived in the country undocumented since childhood and to anyone who has lived in the country since 2010 and whose children are American citizens. Together those groups—whose members would gain most of the usual trappings of legal residency, including work permits and driving licences—represent a third of the 11m people estimated to be living in America...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1QkpPGH
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