US Judge Throws Spanner In The Works For Immigrants

Obamacare, the US president’s healthcare program received a massive backlash when it was first proposed. Now the president’s immigration reforms which were to be implemented last Wednesday must face a similar fate. A federal US judge has revoked the immigration reforms after 26 US states challenged them. The immigration reforms aimed to give deportation relief to nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants in the US, mostly from Mexico and other Latin American countries. The US president has been pursuing a revamp of the immigration policy so that immigrant families do not face the dismal prospect of being broken up. “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 the last 10 years minding her own business and being an important part of the community,” he said. Republicans criticized the reforms severely, which were first proposed on November 20 and accused the president of overstepping his boundaries. In his 123-page ruling, the judge cited increased burden on the states, their budgets and the possibility of unbridled illegal immigration in future as factors that led to his decision. Immigration supporters have criticized the court’s ruling on the grounds that it had disregarded an opportunity to bring undocumented immigrants under a legal purview and consequently the benefits of collecting tax from them. In the meantime, fate of immigrants who have already completed the paperwork for citizenship lies in limbo with the government having no choice but to comply with the court’s order. They will need to make a harrowing a decision – whether to withdraw their application or await an appeal against the court’s verdict. The president continues to solicit the republican lawmakers to deliberate over immigration reforms. The nation ‘built by immigrants’ can only wait and watch. For more news and updates on immigration and visas, please subscribe to Y-Axis News