Nativist Lawsuit on the Texas Border
The first thing to know about the lawsuit brought by two dozen states to block President Obama’s executive actions on immigration is that it is a meritless screed wrapped in flimsy legal cloth and deposited on the doorstep of a federal district judge in Brownsville, Tex.
The second thing to know is that the judge, Andrew Hanen, may well look kindly on the suit. He made news in 2013 with a politically charged ruling accusing the Obama administration of criminally conspiring with Mexican drug cartels to smuggle children over the border (he really said that), which is surely why the plaintiffs like their chances.
But there is a third thing to know: Sound legal scholars are not too worried that Judge Hanen alone will be able to kill the administration’s programs and force the White House to abandon other reforms of enforcement policies. Even if the judge buys the plaintiffs’ bogus line, the government still seems likely to win on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit or the Supreme Court. The states’ standing to sue is dubious; their claims of damage are speculative at best. There is no evidence that executive action will do anything to increase illegal immigration, and there is clear data showing that giving work permits to immigrants who are already here helps, not hurts, state economies.
The country is not going to deport everybody — even many Republicans admit that, but they continue to refuse to do anything to fix the system. After Mitt Romney’s disastrous presidential pose on “self-deportation,” the party went through a stretch of sobriety and sought to enhance its damaged brand by getting in line with the public, which rejects mass deportation in favor of having immigrants come forward, pay taxes and get right with the law. But now we have Republican governors and attorneys general pressing a 25-state lawsuit, joining their counterparts in Congress who are waging a legislative assault on Mr. Obama’s executive actions. The party has reverted back to its original strategy: intimidation, exclusion and fear.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/opinion/nativist-lawsuit-on-the-texas-border.html?_r=0
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