Immigrant groups crushed over Supreme Court ruling, focus on next moves

Immigrants and the groups that support them struggled on Thursday to explain just how damaging the Supreme Court's decision on President Obama's immigration plan truly was.

From disappointment to confusion to anger, they expressed a wide variety of emotions after the justices' tie vote upheld a lower court's decision to block Obama's plan to protect up to 4 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

One of those is Nelly Curiel, a 35-year-old who arrived in Texas 18 years ago from her native Mexico and has since had three children — all U.S. citizens. Curiel said she still remembers the day in November 2014 when Obama announced his plan to protect people like her.

"My dreams were finally going to come true," Curiel said Thursday. "Everything was going to change. I was going to be able to work without fear. I was going to be able to travel with my children. That's why I'm so sad. Now those hopes are gone."

Despite the disappointment, supporters of Obama's plan, called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, or DAPA, quickly turned their focus to different ways they could fight back against the Supreme Court's ruling.

Karen Tumlin, legal director for the National Immigration Center, said lawyers will first push the Justice Department to request that the Supreme Court re-hear the case after a ninth justice is confirmed to the high court. Thursday's ruling only affects a preliminary injunction issued by Texas District Judge Andrew Hanen, so Tumlin said they would also continue fighting to ensure Hanen doesn't issue a permanent injunction.

Deadlocked Supreme Court blocks Obama on immigration

Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, said she would respond by pushing an immigration bill in her first 100 days in office to allow the undocumented immigrants hurt by Thursday's ruling to receive a pathway to citizenship.

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Some are getting creative with their response. The lawsuit that stopped Obama's immigration program was filed by Texas and 25 other states. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., suggested that the Obama administration should try to implement the program in the states that were not part of the lawsuit.

"The governor of Texas should not have the power to dictate immigration policy in Colorado," he said. Greg Abbott, Texas' governor, hailed the court's decision, calling the ruling "a victory for all law-abiding Americans — including the millions of immigrants who came to America following the rule of law."

For other pro-immigration groups, meanwhile, the fight returns to the streets.

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In Chicago, members of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights will rally outside the office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday afternoon. Marisa Franco, director of Mijente, a group that organizes Hispanic activists, said they will start putting pressure on Obama to enact a moratorium on deportations as the DAPA case winds its way through the courts.

"With the courts also taken over by the party politics that have ruled the immigration issue for more than a decade, President Obama has a responsibility to pursue alternatives to make his policies more humane," Franco said.

Perhaps the biggest response from immigration groups could be seen in November. Rocio Saenz, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, said the Supreme Court decision will be used to mobilize Hispanic voters.

"We will vote, we will march, and we'll hold those accountable at the ballot box who have stood in the way of families with their anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric," he said.

The Latino Victory Fund, a group co-founded by actress Eva Longoria and businessman Henry Muñoz III, and Priorities USA, a Democratic PAC supporting Clinton's presidential campaign, announced on Thursday a "five-figure" digital advertising buy in response to the ruling. The ads will target Republicans in Colorado, Nevada and Florida who have opposed efforts to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation and encourage people to mobilize for Clinton in November.

Until then, people like Zaire Garcia will continue waiting for a resolution to the seemingly never-ending legal battles over DAPA.

Garcia's parents are undocumented, and on Thursday, the 23-year-old from Austin, Texas, weeped as she explained how she and her three sisters — all U.S. citizens — will continue panicking that every phone call from their father could be the one saying he's been caught by immigration agents.

"This is about moms and dads who have been humiliated and exploited and continue to keep their heads down out of love for their U.S. citizen children," she said. "What the court does not understand is that I will continue to fight for my mom and my dad because they deserve better. This is not the end."