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Lawsuit by states confronts Obama’s immigration order
 

By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — Last week the Michigan attorney general (AG) joined a multi-state lawsuit seeking to halt President Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration.
Michigan joined 20 other states to challenge what Michigan AG Bill Schuette described as the president’s recent unilateral executive order on immigration. The order, or action – issued Nov. 20 – will create a program that allows immigrants who are in the United States illegally to work legally, as long as they have no criminal record, have lived here at least five years and have children.
About 5 million immigrants might qualify for relief under the order; at least 250,000 of those who are eligible are farm workers, according to United Farm Worker President Arturo Rodriguez in a statement issued Nov. 20.
Those who qualify under the order could also become eligible for Medicare and Social Security benefits.
“America deserves a hopeful immigration policy,” Schuette said in a statement Dec. 9. “Throughout our history, America has provided a beacon of hope across the world. But the President’s unilateral executive order on immigration, bypassing Congress, is constitutionally flawed.”
The states’ complaint was filed by Texas in federal district court and was immediately followed by a request for a preliminary injunction. The motion makes several arguments. One is that Obama’s action violates the “Take Care” clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Take Care clause extends back to the English Bill of Rights, which prohibited the monarchy from dispensing with or suspending laws.
It also argues the executive action violates the Administrative Procedures Act, which requires new rules must be promulgated using established procedures, such as allowing for public comment before a rule can become final. If any of those procedures are violated, the rule can be challenged in court.
Besides Texas and Michigan, the other states joining the lawsuit include Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
“It is easy to paint this as an immigration issue, when it is really a separation of powers issue,” said Craig Anderson, manager of agricultural labor and safety services for Michigan Farm Bureau.
He said the so-called “deferred action” probably will have an impact on Michigan’s agricultural workers, but added it’s difficult to tell right now exactly what the effect will be and how many workers will be affected.
“The challenge is that the procedures will be published in 160 to 180 days, so until we have those it’s hard to tell exactly what may be offered,” he stated.
For decades Michigan has been host to a large number of migrant and seasonal farm workers (MSFWs), at least in part because of the many fruits and vegetables grown in the state that must be picked by hand. According to a state-commissioned report from 2013, Michigan is home to more than 49,000 migrant and seasonal farm workers. When non-farm working family members are added in to the mix, that number climbs above 94,000.
Although the report, Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Enumeration Profiles Study, doesn’t attempt to estimate how many of these individuals are illegal immigrants, report author Alice Larson makes it clear many of them are from Guatemala and different locales in Mexico and that many have fears regarding their immigration status.
“A primary motivation expressed by both growers and those who work with MSFWs and their family members was a concern over immigration enforcement,” Larson writes. “Producers fear workplace raids resulting in their not having the labor they need; MSFWs are afraid to move around or apply for services, as they are concerned about possible apprehension and deportation for themselves or their family members.”
She states these people’s anxieties increased more in 2008 after Michigan passed a law requiring proof of legal residence in the United States in order to acquire a driver’s license.
On the other hand, she says, some MSFWs that had been based in Florida have settled in Michigan year-round because of more aggressive immigration enforcement laws enacted in Georgia and Alabama.
12/17/2014