WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has said both law and history on immigration reform were on his side and his administration will appeal the ruling by a Texas judge that has put on hold orders which could save millions of undocumented workers, including Indians, from being deported.
“With respect to the ruling, I disagree with it. I think the law is on our side and history is on our side. And we are going to appeal it,” Obama told reporters at the White House.
“For those who are now wondering whether or not they should apply, we are going to refer those questions to the Department of Homeland Security that has already begun the planning process. We will be prepared to implement this fully as soon as the legal issues get resolved,” he said.
Obama’s remarks came after a federal judge temporarily blocked his executive action on immigration, giving a coalition of 26 states time to pursue a lawsuit that aims to permanently stop the orders on immigration reform.
The executive actions are expected to benefit millions of undocumented workers, including illegal immigrants from India.
Obama said, “We are not going to be actually taking applications in until this case is settled. But we are doing the preparatory work because this is a big piece of business and it’s important for us to do in order for us to actually secure our borders effectively and allocate limited resources to the most important tasks and functions that the Department of Homeland Security has.”
“We should not be tearing some mom away from her child when the child has been born here and that mom has been living here for the last 10 years, minding her own business and being an important part of the community,” he said.
Obama stressed that the focus should be on stopping people at the borders, going after criminals and felons who can be deported and strengthening the systems for legal immigration.
Obama insisted that the only way to get a broken immigration system fully fixed is by Congressional action.
“We know that there has been bipartisan support in the past with comprehensive immigration reform. I held off taking these executive actions until we had exhausted all possibilities of getting congressional action done,” he said.
“With a new Congress, my hope has been that they now get serious in solving the problem. Instead what we’ve had is a series of votes to kick out young people who have grown up here, and threats to defund the Department of Homeland Security, which would make it even harder for us to protect our borders and to keep our people safe,” he said.
“So my strong advice right now to Congress is, if they are seriously concerned about immigration, about our borders, about being able to keep criminals out of this country, then what they should be doing is working together and working with the administration for a comprehensive immigration policy that allows us to continue to be both a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants,” Obama said.
“Certainly they should start funding the Department of Homeland Security so that they can go forward with all the functions that Republicans say they want carried out, including strong border security functions,” the US President said. -PTI
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