Supreme Court to hear Obama’s action on immigrants

WASHINGTON

The U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday it will decide whether President Barack Obama can take executive action to protect from deportation as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants.

Under the plan announced late in 2014, those undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. more than five years and who have children would be provided certain protections that would allow them to seek a path to legalization.

The plan, which came about after Congress failed to produce its own immigration reform measures, was blocked after a number of Republican-led states sued to prevent it from going forward.

The future of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. remains unclear.

And the Obama administration’s announcement last year that the U.S. would accept 10,000 Syrian refugees has only intensified the immigrant debate in the U.S. with one Republican presidential candidate going as far as saying he would deport all undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.

A ruling on the case is expected sometime in June, just months before the country elects a new president.