Obama administration asks Supreme Court to save immigration programs

The Obama administration on Friday formally asked the Supreme Court to reinstate its controversial immigration programs.

A ruling from the Supreme Court could represent a last-gasp effort to salvage President Barack Obama's signature achievement, and the government moved unusually quickly, filing its appeal 11 days after a federal appeals court upheld a Texas federal judge's injunction to block U.S. President Barack's Obama's immigration executive action of protecting an estimated 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.

"If left undisturbed, that (federal appeals court) ruling will allow States to frustrate the federal government's enforcement of the nation's immigration laws," said Justice Department in court briefs filed Friday.

"It will force millions of people - who are not removal priorities under criteria the court conceded are valid, and who are parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents - to continue to work off the books, without the option of lawful employment to provide for their families," said the Justice Department.

"It will place a cloud over the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who came to the United States as children, have lived here for years, and been accorded deferred action," it added.

In a controversial move last year, Obama resorted to his executive authority to circumvent Congress and push forward immigration reforms by seeking to provide as many as 5 million illegal immigrants with work permit while shielding the majority of them from deportation.

Republicans immediately outcried the action as an illegal executive overreach when Obama announced it last November.

In its defense, the White House said the Supreme Court and Congress had made clear that "the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws."

The first phase of Obama's executive action on immigration reform was supposed to start taking effect in February this year.

As a result, young immigrants would be protected from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. soil illegally as children. The second phase would extend immunity to deportation to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

However, the new deportation-relief program never kicked off after U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Texas issued a court injunction against the program on the eve of its launch.

A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Nov. 9 ruled 2-1 against the Obama administration. Twenty-six states challenged the plan in court. Enditem