Washington, DCThe unbridled rhetoric that remains the overriding flavor of the Donald Trump Republican campaign is being tested in the highest court in the land following a hearing of legal arguments in United States v. Texas in April that will not only seal the fate of President Obama’s troubled executive actions on immigration, but will either fan the flames or douse the fire of the presumptive Republican nominee.
That decision has yet to be announced. However, any undocumented worker fearful of what may be coming can take heart in reassurances that in California, at least, various leaders are of the opinion that undocumented workers make the state more prosperous, and are urging the US Supreme Court to uphold Barak Obama’s executive action.
This position is good news for any undocumented worker who feels threatened in any way by an employer, or is disinclined to pursue a legal challenge for unfair treatment due to the rhetoric currently resounding throughout the national Republican landscape.
It’s a compelling issue, given that California is home to a little under one-third of the nation’s entire complement of undocumented workers: three million undocumented workers reside and work in the state of California alone.
A group comprised of state leaders in business, education, law enforcement and the religious community submitted a brief to the US Supreme Court for arguments heard on April 18 (a decision has yet to be brought down).
“Representing just seven percent of the state’s population, [undocumented workers] make up 34 percent of its farm workers, 22 percent of its production workers and 21 percent of its construction workers according to one estimate,” the group outlined in a brief filed with the court. “Today, the undocumented workforce alone contributes $130 billion to California’s gross domestic product (GDP) - an amount larger than the entire respective GDPs of 19 other states.”
This is good news for any undocumented worker who feels the cold shoulder coming from the Republican side - and from anyone who opines that the undocumented worker comprises a threat to Americans and wants them all banished. To those who are challenging the President’s executive action on immigration, supporters of the undocumented worker in California take the position that undocumented workers make the state stronger on a number of fronts, including manufacturing. To that end, the state of California remains the largest manufacturing hub in the entire country.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the white-hot political debate over this issue,” said Jot Condie, chief executive of the California Restaurant Association, in comments supporting the state’s submission to the Court. “But for us, this simply comes down to people - our fellow churchgoers, classmates, neighbors and hard-working individuals. Millions of loving families hang in the balance. Kicking the can on immigration reform can no longer be an option.”
The President’s executive action, first proposed in 2014, has been the subject of legal challenges, especially in Texas, which has taken the lead in a lawsuit involving leaders from various other Republican-led states claiming the President did not have the legal authority to enact the changes to immigration his executive action proposed.
A judge in Texas agreed, effectively blocking the proposed law. The US Supreme Court will make the final determination, and do so likely before the fall General Election.
Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans would afford deportation relief for some 1.1 million undocumented workers in California who are parents of legal children, born in the United States.