IRLI Files Two Briefs in the Supreme Court Opposing President Obama’s Attempt to Grant Mass Amnesty

April 4, 2016

Returning authority over our immigration policy to Congress

April 04, 2016

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) filed two friend-of-the-court briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the challenge brought by twenty-six states to President Obama’s 2014 executive action attempting to grant mass amnesty to more than 4 million illegal aliens. IRLI filed the briefs on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), two of its American-worker-association clients, Save Jobs USA and the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (Washtech), and itself. In the case of United States v. Texas (No. 15-674), which is due to be heard before the Supreme Court this month, the Obama Administration seeks to reverse the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to uphold the trial court’s preliminary injunction of the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program and extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program as likely violating federal law.

In the briefs filed today, IRLI provides a clear and concise summary of the comprehensive legal framework which Congress put in place precisely to control the executive branch’s politicization of immigration policy. IRLI’s brief for FAIR and itself clearly lays out that Congress afforded the executive branch no discretion in providing work-permits and amnesty-benefits to illegal aliens on a mass-basis and that previous assertions of such discretion on the part of the Executive have been consistently rolled back by Congress. IRLI’s brief on behalf of its American-worker clients zeroes in on the statutory provision that the Obama Administration asserts gives it the power to authorize illegal aliens to work, concisely setting out how President Obama’s interpretation is not based in law and runs crossways to the American-worker protections Congress placed in our immigration laws. The remainder of the brief refutes the Obama Administration’s argument that the States had no right at all to have brought such a case in the first place, an argument that denies the American public the right to bring cases against the government for the harm inflicted upon its communities across the country due to the non-enforcement of our democratically-enacted immigration laws.

Dale L. Wilcox, IRLI’s Executive Director, commented, “The Obama Administration claims that they not only have unlimited discretion in doling out amnesty and benefits to millions of illegal aliens, but that their actions can’t even be reviewed by federal courts. Such an interpretation would wipe out decades of protections for American workers and dismantle what’s left of a viable immigration system in this country.” Wilcox continued, “In our briefs filed today, we show the Supreme Court that the White House and the anti-sovereignty fanatics occupying our government are 100 percent wrong.”

The Washtech and Save Jobs USA friend-of-the-court brief can be found here.

The IRLI and FAIR friend-of-the-court brief can be found here.