In a tie vote, the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked President Obama’s executive order that would have prevented those without legal immigration status from being deported. Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Missouri) says the ruling is a major victory.

Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) Photo courtesy of US House of Representatives

Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) Photo courtesy of US House of Representatives

“This President seems to not want to work with Congress. He wants to make law from the White House and through his executive branch of government versus going through the process, which is very time-consuming and is very difficult. Making law is supposed to be done in Congress,” said Luetkemeyer. “What I believe are his overreaction and overuse of his power has been curtailed.”

Obama says the ruling is heartbreaking for millions of immigrants who help the U.S. economy.

Luetkemeyer doesn’t expect deporting such individuals to effect the economy in the short term, but he says it could in the long run.

“I’m not sure how many people it’s going to effect, whether those people are working, what kind of work they’re doing, are they full-time, part-time or seasonal,” said Luetkemeyer. “When you get into the immigration question there is so many other things in this to discuss when you are talking about the effects of it. It really takes a lot of discussion of all intricate details of it to really get down to where you think it’s really going to go.”

A split vote leaves in place a lower court decision, which also blocked Obama’s order.

The SCOTUS ruling eliminates two presidential executive actions on immigration. In February 2015, a Texas judge issued an order that halted the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Plus programs. Even before Thursday’s ruling the orders were not being implemented.

  1. DAPA would provide deferred action to individuals who are the parent of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident and have continuously lived in the U.S. since January 1, 2010, and who were present in the U.S. on November 20, 2014.
  2. The original DACA executive action released in 2012 would allow young people who had been in the U.S. for at least five years, came as children, and met specific education and public safety criteria were eligible for temporary relief from deportation so long as they were born after 1981 and entered the country before June 15, 2007.

In 2014, when President Obama released DAPA, he also expanded DACA so that individuals who were brought to this country as children can apply if they entered before January 1, 2010, regardless of how old they are. This ruling would eliminate the DACA expansion.