Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court was deadlocked – 4 to 4 – on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s executive order allowing unauthorized immigrant parents of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents to remain in the U.S.
The order, called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (or DAPA), was made in December 2014 and would have affected 3.6 million people, some of whom have been in the U.S. for years.
The order would also have expanded what is known as DACA – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – which was put in place in 2012. DACA has a cut-off age; people need to have been born after June 15, 1981. The new action would have taken that cut-off date away, so people born in the 1970s or earlier could also be allowed to stay in the U.S.
The rest of DACA, though, was not affected by this latest Supreme Court decision – or non-decision.
Nevada joined other states to sue over the action. Attorney General Adam Laxalt told KNPR's State of Nevada it is about the rule of law.
“This is always about the rule of law and taking the president at his own words which was that he did not have the authority independently to do this kind of sweeping immigration reform,” he said.
Laxalt said the president announced several times he did not have the authority to fix the immigration system, but he said eventually Pres. Obama was frustrated by inaction by Congress and decided to go alone.
“It is unlimited what this president has tried to do alone,” Laxalt said,“This is absolutely imperative that this line be held.”
Laxalt said he doesn't believe any president - Republican or Democrat- should be able to decide sweeping reforms on his own because Congress is deadlocked.
Supporters of Pres. Obama's action said it had the potential to protect families that would otherwise be separated.
"I’m empathetic to the tough circumstances a lot of people face with tremendous amount of uncertainty,” Laxalt said, but he maintained it is not about that but about following procedures.
“If they’re upset they should be upset with the president for ‘going it alone’ and giving people false hope and just creating another year and a half of an illusion,” he said.
Immigration attorney Jocelyn Cortez said she and other attorneys cringed when they heard the news about the Supreme Court's tied decision because they knew families that could be torn apart by a deportation order.
"This will literally rip families apart," she said.
Astrid Silva, the organization director for Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, has a personal understanding of that fear of having her family separated.
Her parents are from Mexico, and they are undocumented. She is covered by DACA because she arrived in the United States when she was 4.
Her parents would have been covered under DAPA because her brother is American citizen.
“My family is suffering through this, but there are families with children, small children that are feeling this fear,” she said. “With or without the decision my parents live in fear every day, because we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Cortez also disagreed with Laxalt's assertion that the president didn't have the authority. Cortez said the president's executive order only gave certain immigrants a "temporary reprieve."
“It wasn’t giving anybody legal status," she said, "It was giving them a work permit but by no means was it a change in the law.”
She said other presidents have used similar executive actions to move their agenda forward.
Laxalt said that even if what the executive order aims to accomplish is something you agree with it doesn't make it the right thing to do.
“You may like the outcome of a particular jammed through of a policy but it’s not great for the future of our country that any president can do that,” he said.
Adam Laxalt, Attorney General, Nevada; Jocelyn Cortez, immigration attorney; Astrid Silva, Organization Director, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada
