Garcetti Joins Effort To Oppose Lawsuit Over Immigration Reform
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was among more than 30 mayors to go to court Monday to oppose a lawsuit brought by over a dozen states to block President Barack Obama's immigration-reform plan.
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City and Houston Mayor Annise Parker along with Garcetti organized a national coalition of mayors that filed its friend-of-the-court brief, filed by interested parties in cases in which they are not direct participants, in federal court, according to officials.
Texas v. United States was filed last month by a coalition of states and governors against Obama's executive action on immigration.
"Our residents, economies and municipal budgets directly suffer the consequences when federal immigration reform is stalled," Garcetti said. "Moving forward with these reforms is a human and economic imperative, and we're united to make sure this important policy moves forward."
The 28-page brief (PDF) argues that plantiffs from 17 states have "failed to satisfy" conditions that would justify an "extraordinary remedy of a preliminary injunction."
The paper cites a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study claiming that Obama's executive action will fuel economic growth in U.S. cities by allowing "invaluable" foreign-born workers to sustain growth "in the face of an aging U.S. workforce and impending retirements."
Another study cited by the brief conducted by The North American Integration and Development Center at UCLA estimates that if
if 3.8 million people were to become eligible to legally work in the U.S. through the executive action, the move would generate 167,000 new jobs and over $2.6 billion in new tax revenue.
Obama's immigration order would allow 3.7 million parents of U.S.-born and resident children, as well as an additional 1 million or more immigrants who arrived illegally as children, to apply for work permits and conduct legal transactions.
Texas v. United States is pending before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
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