As with any university, Georgetown reflects larger discourses played out on the national or international stage. Conversations surrounding undocumented individuals in the U.S. are one example. Last month, the Editorial Board praised UndocuHoyas, a group that advocates for undocumented students on campus, for reaching an agreement with the admissions office to better promote and clarify their admissions policy for undocumented applicants.
Lately, the national dialogue regarding undocumented individuals in the U.S., unfortunately, has been far less productive. Last week, Texas U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen abruptly put the brakes on President Obama’s immigration deferred-deportation program.
Announced in November, Obama’s executive order would defer deportation for up to five million undocumented U.S. residents and was set to take effect on Feb. 18. Hanen ruled that legal challenges to the order, which have been mounted in 26 states, should play through the courts before the program takes effect. On Monday, the administration lodged a formal appeal, arguing that the ruling represented judicial overreach. According to the Washington Post, 12 states and the District of Columbia have filed amicus briefs in support of the administration’s appeal.
The ruling is yet another partisan, obstructionist action that will do little to ameliorate our current immigration straits. There is a pressing need to reform the broken pathways to productive, legal citizenship—a need that Republicans have frustrated thus far. Like so many initiatives pursued during the president’s six years in office to date, proposed fixes like the DREAM Act have fallen on the sword of Congressional gridlock that Obama has tried to circumvent. Now, the president’s response to such blockages, which has been vetted by most legal scholars as constitutional, has been halted on a mere technicality. Though political opponents might be satisfied, the cause of immigration reform has simply been pushed further down the road with no clear reason.
Just as the Affordable Care Act has been beset by a host of legal challenges both legislative and judicial, a precedent for pushing back on Obama’s achievements has been laid. With Republicans now in control of both houses of Congress, the president’s executive action may be the last opportunity to do something—anything—substantive on the issue for the foreseeable future. If the administration’s appeal fails, the ruling could, in the future, derail more of Obama’s important legacies.
Hansen’s stay of execution means a long-deferred dream for millions in America deferred yet again. The court reviewing the Obama administration’s appeal will find it wise to strike down Hansen’s misguided decision. Our government cannot afford to procrastinate any longer, and our country’s judges should not, and cannot, remain complacent on the issue of immigration reform.
