Published:  February 20, 2015

In the past week, a federal court in Texas put a temporary halt to the implementation of the first stage of President Obama’s most recent Executive Order on immigration, a program originally set for launch on February 18, 2015.  This phase of the new program was aimed at benefiting an expanded group of childhood arrivals who were deemed too old to apply under the previously implemented Childhood Arrival program rules.  The court order also effectively put a halt to implementation of stage 2 of the new Executive Order which was originally set for May, 2015 and was set to benefit a much broader group of qualified applicants who have been in the U.S. for more than 5 years, and are the parents of U.S. citizens.

The ruling came in response to one of the lawsuits filed by states across the nation taking issue with the legality and constitutionality of the most recent Executive Order initiatives.  Again, the ruling is a temporary one, and no one knows for sure when and how the legal conflict will be resolved or when the Department of Homeland Security/Citizenship and Immigration Services will start accepting applications from the new expanded classes of eligible applicants.  Likely, it will be a matter of weeks or months before we know the program’s fate.  The final arbiter on the issue may very well be the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Updates on this litigation and developments impacting prospective applicants will continue to be featured in this column.

 

PUBLISHED February 20, 2015– “IMMIGRATION LAW FORUM” Copyright © 2015, By Law Offices of Richard Hanus, Chicago, Illinois