New front opens in immigration reform fight

On Thursday, immigration advocates began a new attempt to revive part of President Barack Obama’s plan to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation by filing a new lawsuit. This challenges the nationwide scope of the original court order, which prevented it from being implemented.

The lawyers claim that if court rulings go their way, the new lawsuit could pick apart the decisions that resulted in the executive actions taken in the first place, in November 2014. Obama’s programs, if allowed to go ahead, would have enabled an estimated four million undocumented immigrants to stay in the US without the threat of deportation, and to be given work permits.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a 25-year-old Mexican immigrant, Martin Batalla Vidal, in New York federal court. Vidal had already benefited from the deferred action program, having lived in the US since he was seven-years-old. He was given a three-year work authorization. This was subsequently revoked, last February, by the ruling of a Texas judge, which blocked the plan following a lawsuit from 26 states, headed by Texas.

Vidal is still eligible for a work authorization lasting two years under an earlier deferred-action program, which has not been blocked. The National Immigration Law Center lawyers behind the case say that a victory could eventually see Obama’s plan reinstated in areas of the US not covered by the ruling made in Texas.