Immigration ruling is bad for Texas
Immigrant families and immigration reform supporters in Texas received another blow Tuesday when a federal appeals court denied a request to allow President Barack Obama’s immigration actions to take effect, pending appeal.
The 2-1 decision by a panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals adds another notch in the belts of anti-immigration conservatives at the expense of building stronger families and a more resilient state economy. Among those claiming victory is Gov. Greg Abbott, who filed the original lawsuit challenging Obama’s orders in December while he was still Texas attorney general. The celebration, which may only be temporary, is tainted with the same hypocrisy that comes with the current state of conservative rhetoric.
As we’ve said before, immigration is not a matter of state affairs, but rather policy that rightfully must be set by Congress. Until then, delays in form of lawsuits and other threats stand in the way of real progress in Texas and other states.
After the entire country waited in vain for immigration reform to move through Congress, Obama used executive action in November to expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which helps immigrants brought to the United States as children remain in the only country many of them consider home. Obama’s administration also presented Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), which would also protect from deportation the parents of American citizens or permanent residents. The initiatives would allow about 5 million unauthorized immigrants to remain and work in the United States.
In February, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Brownsville blocked Obama’s executive action, saying that the state coalition led by Texas had legal grounds to challenge the lawfulness of programs and that the costs associated with temporary legal status would harm Texas. Hanen’s injunction was based on a procedural technicality, not on the question of constitutionality. The Obama administration appealed Hanen’s decision.
The court’s decision on Tuesday means that while the issue is ap- pealed, the expanded DACA provisions and DAPA initiatives are null. Eligible undocumented immigrants will be unable to apply for the programs that protect them against deportation threats. The decision is unfortunate. Texas and the nation would have been better off if DACA and the implementation of DAPA were allowed to move forward unabated and handled by Congress, as Judge Stephen Higginson argued in his dissent. Under the 5th Circuit’s own case law, the exercise of executive authority should not be reviewable by the courts, Higginson wrote.
The ruling also means immigrants will continue to live in fear and work in potentially dangerous and abusive conditions. Even under those unfair terms, immigrants will continue to make positive contributions to our economy.
It seems as though hard-line Republicans conveniently forget that undocumented immigrants are an essential and integral part of the state economy. Immigrants have played a vital role in the highly contested Texas “miracle” economy. The economic impact of immigrants is the reason why business leaders from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the Texas Association of Business — along with members from the state manufacturing, construction and agriculture industries — support immigration reform.
Lawmakers just have to look at the overwhelming amount of data that shows the impact immigrants have in Texas. Studies show that immigrants contribute billions of dollars to the state each year through their work, consumerism, paid taxes and job creation.
Here in Texas, more than 20 percent of all workers are immigrants. As a re- sult, undocumented immigrants in Texas paid more than $1.6 billion in state and local taxes in 2010, according to a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
The DACA and DAPA programs would allow undocumented families to come out of the shadows and make even greater positive contributions. The initiatives have always been a temporary fix. The next president can easily do away with both.
Although the programs do not create a path to citizenship, critics have labeled them “amnesty,” including U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul of Austin. In a statement, McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, urged Obama “to abandon his unconstitutional amnesty orders and focus on something the American people actually want — border security.”
McCaul has a point. Border security is an issue that must continue to be a priority. But our broken immigration system is also in dire need of repair. Both facets need to be handled by Congress, and as McCaul’s efforts on border security prove, Republicans can’t even agree on that score.
Bringing back a bill similar to the bipartisan Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act that died in the House in 2013 would be a welcome advance in the current stalemate.
That particular Senate bill offered undocumented immigrants an arduous, 13-year pathway to citizenship — but it also would have spent $46 billion on border security.
Without Congress stepping up to the plate, we have DACA and DAPA. And now we must wait until after the appeals hearing scheduled for July 6 for the courts to even begin to deal with the question of constitutionality.
Border security is an issue that must continue to be a priority. But our broken immigration system is also in dire need of repair.