Executive Actions on Immigration Face an Uncertain Future

Northbrook, IL, January 28, 2015 (Newswire.com) - President Obama made international headlines last November when he promised to issue executive actions aimed at breaking congressional deadlock on immigration reform. Since then, 25 states have sued to prevent those actions from going into effect.

This past week, the US Congress also signaled that they will seek to restrict the government's ability to implement the immigration reforms requested by the White House. These reforms were scheduled to begin on February 18th and now their future is very much uncertain.

Commenting on this, Ronald Shapiro, an immigration lawyer in Chicago, said "Immigration reform is most certainly needed. Complex rules and arbitrary decisions make it difficult for people wishing to immigrate to the Chicago area."

At stake is the potential deportation of 5 million people who are residing and working within the United States illegally. Overall, it is estimated that the number of people who fall into this category within Illinois is roughly 500,000 people. Of these, it is unclear how many people would benefit from the executive actions which are now stalled.

"As an immigration lawyer in Chicago, I've said for years that immigration reform is desperately needed. The rules, regulations, and obstacles standing in the way of legal immigration are simply immense. Simplifying these and making it easier for people to immigrate really will be beneficial to the Illinois economy and country as a whole."

The present legal and legislative actions are likely to drag out for several months. At the core of the debate is whether the president has the legal authority to circumvent established legislation and immigration policy. For now, it is up to the Supreme Court to determine whether or not the president has the executive authority to issue blanket immigration policy from the White House. Under both Reagan and Bush, the Court ruled in the president's favor; thus, it is likely the court will follow the same path in the near future.