WASHINGTON, June 23 (UPI) — President Barack Obama slammed the U.S. Supreme Court’s split decision on immigration as “frustrating” and “heartbreaking” after a deadlocked high court blocked the administration’s effort to protect up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.
Obama, in a press conference late Thursday morning, laid the blame on the Republican divide and the GOP’s refusal to consider Merrick Garland’s nomination for the Supreme Court seat left empty after the February death of Antonin Scalia. Obama vowed the immigration system would eventually be overhauled.
“The country was looking to the Supreme Court to resolve the important legal questions raised in this case,” he said. “Today the Supreme Court was unable to reach a decision. This is part of the consequence of the Republican’s failure so far to give a fair hearing to Mr. Merrick Garland, my nominee to the Supreme Court.”
The Supreme Court’s 4-4 decision leaves in place the lower court’s order forbidding Obama’s 2014 executive orders — Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — that would have allow some protections to immigrant families, including three-year work permits.
Texas led about 25 states in a fight against Obama, saying the president lacked the authority to go around Congress. The administration had hoped that at least one conservative justice — possibly Chief Justice John Roberts — would determine the plan would not financially harm the states and could not be challenged in court.
The high court’s one-sentence ruling stated, “The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided court.”
“Today’s decision is frustrating to those who seek to grow our economy and bring a rationality to our immigration system, and to allow people to come out of the shadows and lift this perpetual cloud on them,” Obama said. “I think it is heartbreaking for the millions of immigrants who have made their lives here.”
The ruling strikes a blow to Obama’s efforts to shore up his legacy on immigration, an issue that emerged time and again throughout his presidency. Obama said the issue of immigration will continue to hound the country until an agreement can be put into place.
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” he said of new immigration policy. “This does not substantially change the status quo and it does not negate which has always been the case, if we’re really going to solve the problem effectively … we now have to have Congress act.”
