By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton and more than 80 other cities and counties around the country that are home to more than 1.25 million illegal immigrants want the U.S. Supreme Court to review a legal challenge to President Barack Obama’s executive actions to delay deportation of more than four million undocumented immigrants.
“The president’s reforms will provide temporary relief from deportation and work authorization to immigrants with longstanding ties to the U.S. who pass a background check and meet other criteria,” Mayor Liz Lempert said Friday in an email announcing Princeton was one of 84 municipalities and counties that had signed on to a friend of the court brief with the high court.
Princeton joined with communities like New York and Los Angeles in filing the brief dealing with a lawsuit involving the Obama administration and 26 states. In particular, they want the court to review a lower court’s ruling blocking the executive actions from taking effect.
Mayor Lempert said that the municipalities’ brief “argues that immediate Supreme Court review of the case is needed to resolve an urgent issue of nationwide importance: the implementation of immigration relief by executive action without delay.”
“The brief argues that executive action is urgently needed to protect the integrity of millions of families, promote public safety, and support the economies of cities and counties across the country,” she said.
On the same day that she made her announcement, more than 200 Democrats in Congress announced that they, too, had filed a friend of the court brief in the case.
