WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to overturn lower courts and declare that the president has the authority to allow millions of illegal aliens to remain and work in the United States without fear of deportation.
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The administration petitioned the justices to step in only 10 days after a federal appeals court ruled against President Barack Obama's program.
Obama announced the program through an executive order exactly a year ago Friday after House Republicans blocked an effort to pass a comprehensive immigration bill.
Then Texas, Arkansas and 23 other states sued, saying that Obama had exceeded his authority with a plan that would allow up to 5 million illegal aliens to remain in this country.
The administration contends the states have no legal standing to sue because it is up to the federal government to set immigration policy and that the Department of Homeland Security did not violate federal statutes in devising the new program.
As a practical matter, the government has said it does not have the resources to annually deport more than about 400,000 of the nation's estimated 11 million illegal aliens.
Obama's program, called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, would allow such illegal aliens to apply for work permits if they have lived in the country for at least five years and have not committed felonies or repeated misdemeanors.
The administration says the program is simply a form of prioritizing which illegal aliens the government will move first to deport. But the states have said it is an illegal power grab by the president, carrying out a program that Congress would not authorize.
Texas and others said the plan runs afoul of federal laws and saddles states with providing benefits for millions of people now eligible for work permits and other forms of government aid.
A federal district court and then a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, in a 2-to-1 decision, agreed. Both courts have kept the program from being implemented.
U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, wrote that the Deferred Action plan goes beyond the law enforcement concept of "prosecutorial discretion," in which a government with limited resources sets priorities for enforcement.
"Deferred action ... is much more than nonenforcement: It would affirmatively confer 'lawful presence' and associated benefits on a class of unlawfully present aliens," he said. "Though revocable, that change in designation would trigger" eligibility for federal and state benefits "that would not otherwise be available to illegal aliens."
Generally, the Supreme Court must accept a case by January in order to schedule it for oral arguments and a decision before the court's term ends in June. The decision by Solicitor General Donald Verrilli to file the government's petition Friday starts a process that would allow the court, absent any delays, to do just that.
A Section on 11/21/2015