What is US v. Texas?
United States v. Texas is a Supreme Court Case dealing with President Obama’s executive actions, primarily the ones that expanded DACA and introduced DAPA. Texas and 25 other states filed a lawsuit shortly after these executive actions were announced, claiming that they not only violated the Administrative Procedure Act, but also violated the constitution itself. These states claimed that the executive actions violated the Take Care Clause of the constitution, which means that the President is required to take care that the laws are faithfully executed. In other words, the states think that these executive actions impede the ability of a law to be executed properly. Additionally, the states feel as though these new programs violate the currently standing immigration laws, which means that they must be struck down.
When is this case being heard?
This case is currently on its way to the United States Supreme Court, and it is scheduled to be argued before the court on April 18, 2016. This means that the attorneys representing both sides of the case will stand before the court for the first time and try to convince the court that their side is correct. A decision is expected in June of 2016 before the Supreme Court takes its summer recess.
What issues is the court facing?
The biggest issue that faces the court right now is the fact that there are only 8 justices. When there are only 8 justices active in the Supreme Court there is the possibility of a tie decision. That would result int the lower court being affirmed. But here we have two conflicting decisions from two different courts of appeals. It is unclear what would happen if a tie occurs in this case. Immigrants living in certain states could potentially apply for these benefits while other immigrants in other states could be prohibited? That is a real possiblity, but one I hope we will not experience.
What should you do?
The reality is that DACA and DAPA still have a change of happening, but we are approaching a critical time. It is very important that you do everything you can to ensure that you are prepared to take advantage of the DACA expansion or DAPA as soon as they become available.
We would recommend looking into the possibility of achieving legal status as soon as possible, and we offer a free resource to help you discover whether or not you qualify. On the left hand side of the screen you will see a quick and easy to fill out questionnaire in the offers section that will help you determine if you are eligible for legal status or not. If it turns out that you are eligible for legal status, we urge you to contact our office as soon as possible, as this process can take a while. If you are not eligible for legal status however, we want you to reach out to us anyway so that we can address any other options that you might have. Additionally, we offer several other programs that we urge you to look into, as they may help you realize your options in the United States.
What is the SAFE program?
We offer two programs that have been specially designed to help keep you and your family safe in the event of any legal trouble. The first program is the SAFE program. Through this program you will receive a printed ID card, which can be presented to a law enforcement officer to make it clear that you will not answer any questions without your lawyer present. This will not only prevent you from saying anything that could potentially incriminate you, but it will also prevent law enforcement officials from intimidating you into making a mistake.
What is the SECURE program?
The SECURE program applies specifically to cases in which you have already been detained by immigration. The identity card you get with the SAFE program wouldn’t keep you from being arrested if you already had an order of arrest or an order of deportation. However, being a member of the SECURE program would greatly improve your chances of getting out of detention quickly, efficiently, and cost effectively.
When immigration officials first detain you, your family would normally need to scramble to find you an attorney. Then, your attorney will need to make multiple trips to visit you in jail to fill out paperwork, sign forms, and figure out the best strategy of getting you out of detention. What our SECURE program does, is make sure that all of these things are taken care of before any potential arrest. When you first sign up for the program, we also have the time to do a thorough background check and attempt to fix any issues that can get you into trouble with law enforcement.
Here is what you get with the SECURE program:
- A thorough immigration analysis laying out your options,
- The Safe identity program for two years,
- A free consultation every year for two years to see if your options have changed and to make sure we have the most up to date information for you,
- Preparation for Deferred Action that way once it is implemented you will be ready to file quickly to achieve legal status,
- Criminal background analysis to see if you have outstanding issues that can result in your detention,
- Immigration Background analyses to determine if you have any impediment to achieving legal status and maximizing your ability to get out of immigration detention,
- Signed documentation to get you of detention either via an Immigration Judge or through immigration in case you already have an order of deportation.
The fact that this case may be decided simply because there are not 9 justices on the court is terrible, but real. We need to be prepared to do anything and everything possible to help one another, and the first step is to contact our office and gain the legal help that you need. Here at Andres Mejer Law we help every immigrant, one case at a time.
