Supreme Court Amici Brief Supports Deferred Action Policies

Skadden filed an amici curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a group of businesses and business leaders, arguing that a pair of challenged deferred action initiatives announced by the federal government in November 2014 will benefit the U.S. business community by affording undocumented immigrants lawful opportunities to contribute to the U.S. economy. Amici observe that undocumented immigrants bring vital ingenuity, skills and entrepreneurial spirit to the United States and to its businesses. Yet, the brief argues, instead of facilitating these contributions, U.S. immigration policies have perpetuated labor shortages and have fostered uncertainty that enables the exploitation of undocumented workers and erodes the long-term skills of the U.S. workforce. Amici argue that by clarifying enforcement priorities and providing certain undocumented individuals with work authorization and temporary relief from deportation, the deferred action policies will appreciably benefit the U.S. economy in the near term and will represent an important step toward modernizing our nation's immigration enforcement system.