For 13-year old Abigail Ramirez, there is uncertainty every time she walks from school to her family’s home, just off of Airport Boulevard in East Austin.
“How would you feel if you came home one day and no one was there, an empty house? And, all you think all they just went out but then hours and hours of waiting they never come back. I have to live in constant fear of that happening,” Abigail told O’Malley over lunch.
Abigail was born in the U.S. but her parents, who graciously served O’Malley heaping mounds of Chili Lenguas, are in the country illegally. President Obama, through an executive order added federal protection from the risk of deportation for parents like Abigail’s, but that order was challenged in court by 26-states including Texas. O’Malley told the Ramirez’s that his plan would expand the executive order put in place by the Obama Administration and push the legal envelop a little further by issuing even more executive actions concerning immigration reform.
“I think it’s pretty clear and most lawyers agree the president has the executive authority, so ultimately, I think the president is going to prevail. But DACA and DAPA and even extending executive action is the short-term solution. The real solution is to pass comprehensive immigration reform. You want wages to go up, get 11 million people out of the underground and shadow economy and into the light of a American society,” O’Malley explained.
As part of the lawsuit challenging President Obama’s order, justices at the U.S. 5th Circuit Court have put the president’s order on hold pending trial. Following the injunction the Obama administration requested the case advance straight to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court has not announced if it will hear the case.
