President Barack Obama on Thursday lamented that a 4-4 Supreme Court tie vote left his executive actions on immigration in limbo, saying the decision takes the country backwards.
“The fact that the Supreme Court wasn’t able to issue a decision today doesn’t just set the system back further, it takes us further from the country that we aspire to be,” a somber Obama said in a speech from the White House press briefing room.
“It is my firm belief that immigration is not something to fear,” he said, calling the U.S. a “nation of immigrants.” “We don’t have to wall ourselves off from those who may not look like us right now or pray like we do or have a different last name because being an American is about something more than that. What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal that all of us are created equal.”
The court’s split on a challenge to his 2014 executive actions meant to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation means that the appeals court decision blocking the programs from being implemented stands.
As Obama made clear, those affected by the Supreme Court’s announcement—undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and the parents of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents—will remain a low enforcement priority for federal immigration officials.
Obama said that this non-decision underlined the grave ramifications of the GOP’s refusal to consider his nominee to fill the court’s vacancy, Merrick Garland.
“Republicans in Congress currently are willfully preventing the Supreme Court from being fully staffed and functioning as our founders intended,” Obama said, “and today’s situation under scores the degree to which the court is not able to function the way it is supposed to.”
“America should not let it stand,” he went on. “This is an election year. During election years, politicians tend to use the immigration issue to scare people with words like amnesty in hopes to whip up votes.”
Obama said that America faced a crucial choice in November between an isolationist, anti-immigrant future and an inclusive, welcoming one.
Other Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), echoed Obama’s concerns. Clinton said the tie threw “millions of families across our country into a state of uncertainty,” while Reid said the result showed that the court is “hobbled” without a ninth justice.
Republicans countered that it was a victory for “the Constitution,” as House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) put it, saying that only Congress should have the ability to write laws.
Obama said several times during his address that he would have vastly preferred a legislative response on immigration reform but that this was off the table in this bitterly divided Congress.
“I have pushed to the limits of my executive authority,” he said. “We now have to have Congress act.”
