DAPA Non‐​Ruling Shows Why We Need Legislative not Executive Immigration Reform

The deadlocked Supreme Court couldn’t issue an opinion, but still left in place the block on President Obama’s immigration actions. The lower courts had correctly found that the executive actions implementing DAPA violated both administrative law and immigration statutes so, for practical purposes, it wouldn’t have mattered if Justice Scalia had still been on the bench to make this a 5–4 decision against the government. In any case, DAPA is now dead and so is any chance for immigration reform until the next president. That’s why those of us favoring reform in this area counseled against the president’s attempt to rewrite the law via executive action. This country’s immigration system is a mess — not serving anyone’s interests, let alone national security — but changing the law requires a new law.