Lawyers for the Obama administration on Friday asked [cert. petition, PDF] the US Supreme Court [official website] to uphold the president’s changes to US immigration policy. Earlier this month the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] upheld [opinion, PDF] a federal judge’s injunction against the president’s plan. Obama announced execution action [JURIST report] on immigration last year that would allow 4.7 million undocumented immigrants to stay in the US, prompting several states to file suit [JURIST reports]. In the appeal, Obama administration lawyers argued that the executive branch has discretion to manage immigration and deportation. The petition challenged the states’ right to sue, arguing that it would be unprecedented to allow them to pursue their own view of immigration policy. The case is particularly timely as it could clarify the division of power over who may enter the country amid a debate over refugee policy.

US immigration law [JURIST backgrounder] continues to be a controversial and heavily politicized area of law at both the state and federal levels. In February a federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked [JURIST report] two key parts of Obama’s immigration initiative that would halt the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. Last November a judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona [official website] struck down [JURIST report] an Arizona law that made smuggling immigrants a state crime because it conflicts with federal laws governing immigration. In August 2013 the Obama administration released [JURIST report] a policy directive known as the “Family Interest Directive,” emphasizing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents should apply “prosecutorial discretion” towards undocumented immigrant parents of minors to limit detaining parents and to safeguard their parental rights. In June 2013 the US Senate approved [JURIST report] a bill which would create new pathways to US citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the US. That bill was subsequently not approved by the House.