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Supreme Court will hear challenge to Obama move to limit deportation of millions

By Miriam Jordan 

Tech entrepreneur Cris Mercado still keeps the envelope that he stuffed in late 2014 with school records, his proof of residence and other documents he gathered to apply for a new program to shield him from deportation and enable him to work legally in the U.S.

"Whatever it took I wanted to be the first to apply," recalled the 35-year-old undocumented Filipino, who arrived in New York when he was 5.

Mr. Mercado's hopes were put on hold when a federal judge last year blocked the implementation of President Barack Obama's new policy after 26 states filed suit challenging it.

On Monday, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the policy in one of its biggest cases this term, though the February death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia leaves the court at risk of ties. If it deadlocks 4-4, the lower-court injunctions remain in place, likely freezing the policy for the remainder of the Obama administration.

The policy is called the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA. It would offer temporary protection from deportation and authorize work permits to about five million undocumented immigrants, most of them parents of U.S. citizens.

The program is based on a 2012 policy called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. That program, which would be expanded to include a larger age group, offers the same reprieve to people brought to the U.S. as children, such as Mr. Mercado.

Opponents say Mr. Obama lacks the legal authority to take such sweeping executive actions; supporters say he does.

The showdown is mobilizing pro-immigrant groups, with the backing of major figures in the technology industry, including Facebook Inc.'s Mark Zuckerberg and LinkedIn Corp. co-founder Reid Hoffman. The tech industry employs many foreign workers and a number of tech companies, including Intel Corp., were started by immigrants.

Thousands of people, including Mr. Mercado, are expected to be in Washington, D.C., on Monday to demonstrate outside the court during the hearing.

Over the weekend, 30 undocumented mothers who would be eligible for relief through the policy were fasting outside the court. The women, from as far away as San Francisco and Phoenix, planned to break their fast Monday after the demonstration.

A coalition of immigrant advocacy groups that includes FWD.us, an organization co-founded by Messrs Zuckerberg, Hoffman and other tech leaders, created a website, www.fightforfamilies.org, to back the policies.

"We have been working hard to make sure the voices of those directly impacted are front and center," said Alida Garcia, director of coalitions and policies at FWD.us. "That's how we make our case to the American public -- helping them realize these individuals are our neighbors, community members and sitting in pews next to us in church."

The coalition also launched a campaign on social media encouraging supporters to change their online profile images to reflect #FightforFamilies and #UnfreezeDAPA on Facebook and Twitter. It also unveiled an exhibit featuring profiles of immigrant families who would benefit from the programs.

Groups opposed to the policy haven't planned demonstrations for Monday, according to a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, which favors a crackdown on illegal immigration. FAIR's website features a countdown to the hearing. "A precedent-setting decision," it says, "could allow President Obama [and future presidents] to run roughshod over the constitutional separation-of-powers doctrine."

The site encourages people to sign a petition opposing the policy, which FAIR plans to release to the justices in coming months as they deliberate on the case. On Twitter, the organization directs people to FAIR's resource page to learn "what's at stake."

"Congress didn't delegate to the president the discretion to allow millions of people here illegally to just stay here, work and get benefits," said FAIR's president, Dan Stein. "We're trying to get people to raise hell."

About 11 million people live in the U.S. without legal status. When the president announced the new policy in November 2014, he said that Congress's failure to pass an immigration overhaul had compelled him to use his executive power to offer relief to many of them.

Immigrants had begun attending information sessions to prepare to apply for the initiative when a U.S. district judge in Texas blocked it in February 2015. A federal appellate panel upheld the injunction in November. The Supreme Court granted the administration's request to review the case and is expected to rule in June.

"This has been a challenging situation but we have engaged thousands of people who weren't engaged before," said Cristina Jimenez, director of United We Dream, an immigrant advocacy group.

One of them is Mr. Mercado, of New York. He kept his undocumented status under wraps as he attended college, earned a master's degree and started working independently -- unable to be legally hired by U.S. employers -- with low-income students.

"It feels like this is my last shot," said Mr. Mercado. He had missed by a year the age cutoff of 30 for the original DACA in 2012.

His company, GrantAnswers, partners with the New York City Department of Education to offer workshops for students in homeless shelters to help them apply to college and get jobs.

Next month, Mr. Mercado plans to launch an app, KeyJargon, designed to help millennials prepare to apply for jobs in industries such as health care, technology and finance. But "if the idea fails I can't get hired by an American company."

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has said the government will implement the programs quickly if the court allows them to take effect. The next president could halt the programs, though that could create political and pragmatic challenges after potentially millions of immigrants had obtained temporary status.

If the court deadlocks 4-4, the lower-court injunctions remain in place, likely freezing the deferred-action programs for the remainder of the Obama administration.

"If you unfreeze DACA and DAPA it will allow so many talented immigrants to fulfill their potential and contribute more to the U.S.," said Mr. Mercado, who recently has spoken at colleges, such as New York University, and been invited to speak on immigration panels, including at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on Tuesday.

Write to Miriam Jordan at miriam.jordan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 18, 2016 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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