Members of the Senate GOP have filed a legal brief with the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of President Obama’s controversial executive actions on immigration. The key objection among GOP Senators is that Obama is in essence making laws directly from the White House while cutting out the involvement of the other two government branches. This, they claim, is a significant threat to the separation of powers set forth in the Constitution.
According to the brief, the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) is part of a calculated effort to circumvent the legislative process. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R- KY) has called the President’s actions a “brazen challenge” to the lawmaking powers of Congress. He further stated that the President’s refusal to abide by the law is an unprecedented “power grab,” and that it is the Senate’s responsibility to ensure that the President enforces the laws enacted by Congress.
Democratic senators, on the other hand, argue that several other presidents have taken some sort of “deferred action” to protect immigrants from deportation. However, McConnell contends that none of these actions are comparable to Obama’s.
All but 11 GOP senators endorsed the brief. Oral arguments in the case will be heard on April 18, 2016 in the Supreme Court. If DAPA is approved, more than four million immigrants here illegally, but who are parents of legal U.S. citizens or permanent residents or came here as children, will potentially be given work permits.
For more information, please refer to Senate GOP files Supreme Court Brief against Obama’s immigration actions, available online via Politico.
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