Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a coalition of tech and business leaders are joining the administration’s call for the Supreme Court to “unfreeze” President Barack Obama’s 2014 executive-amnesty programs.
In an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court and released Tuesday by FWD.us, a Zuckerberg-founded immigration advocacy group, more than 60 tech business leaders say that Obama’s executive amnesty programs are essential to a stable national workforce.
“By clarifying its enforcement priorities and giving certain low-priority undocumented immigrants the opportunity to obtain temporary work authorization, the federal government can help stabilize labor supplies in these, and many other, industries, thereby reducing labor shortages and spurring economic growth,” the brief reads in part.
The Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments on Obama’s 2014 executive amnesty programs — which would provide pseudo-legal status and work permits to millions of illegal immigrants — next month. Texas and 25 additional states have challenged the executive amnesty in court and have so far been successful in preventing the programs from moving forward in lower courts.
Democrats in Congress also filed an amicus brief on behalf of the administration’s actions on Tuesday.
Republicans and the states challenging the administration’s actions have argued that the executive amnesty programs represent an unconstitutional overreach of executive power that burdens states with excess expenses.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced last week that the House will soon vote on whether the House will fill an amicus brief in opposition to the programs.
“The House will vote on whether to file an amicus brief in Supreme Court opposing the president’s executive amnesty,” Ryan told reporters. “This is a very extraordinary step. In fact, it has never been done before.”