Obama’s “Justice Department” Appeals Landmark Ninth Circuit Victory to the Supreme Court

Today, the Justice Department placed the brakes on the dreams of thousands of intending young immigrants. It appealed the landmark Ninth Circuit Child Status Protection Act victory (de Osorio v. Mayorkas) to the Supreme Court. The cert petition is here.

This means that the Ninth Circuit decision is stayed and the stay continues until the Supreme Court denies hearing the case or delivers a final disposition in the case. The entire process can take anywhere from 6 months to a couple more years, if not longer.

In the meanwhile, the Obama Administration will play lip-service to “immigration reform” while continuing its assault on young undocumented immigrants and intending young immigrants by denying us our original priority dates. Legal permanent resident parents will have to continue living without their adult children who are stuck abroad. Those adult children already here have to continue living in limbo, continue facing removal, and settle for second-class treatment.

Anyone who dares to believe in the myth of immigration reform is left to answer some hard questions–if the Obama Administration is so concerned about immigration reform, why does it continue its assault on immigrant families? If “family unity” is a critical principle for this Administration, why does it let the Office of Immigration Litigation continue to gut the last good immigration bill to pass Congress?

The decision doesn’t change my life. Nor will a green-card, to be frank. I will graduate this May, pass the Bar, get sworn in as an attorney and continue to try to make a difference in the lives of my clients by learning from the best, working with the best and becoming the best immigration lawyer, all while, I am still in removal proceedings, technically.

Yet, I continue to be disappointed in this country, in its deception, and in the wide disparity between its promise and its reality.