With tears, immigrants vow to keep fighting

After learning the Supreme Court was deadlocked on an immigration plan that would protect her from being deported, Marta Gualotuna could barely speak through her tears.

"This decision is very, very painful for me," Gualotuna, 57, said in Spanish through a translator. The Ecuadorean immigrant had hoped the court would uphold President Barack Obama's 2014 executive order, which was designed to reduce the threat of deportation for certain immigrants living in the United States illegally.

Despite her sadness, Gualotuna, a New York resident who's been in the country for more than 20 years and has three US-born children, was also determined. "The only thing I know is we're going to keep fighting," she said.

It was a sentiment expressed by other immigrants and their advocates on Thursday after the high court's deadlock left intact a lower court ruling blocking Obama's order.

"For me, living in the shadows, it's like I don't have a life. I'm like nobody. I feel like nobody," said Betty Jaspeado, a mother of three in Los Angeles.

The Mexican immigrant described her working life in the US as one devoid of hope, one where she constantly watched her back in fear of deportation. The possibility of protection offered by Obama had given her something to hold onto.

"I was thinking I could feel human again," Jaspeado said.

'Heartbreaking' ruling

In 2014, Obama proposed Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA, and he expanded the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, to effectively shield up to 4 million immigrants. His executive orders to this effect were put forth in a political climate where the chances for a legislative overhaul of the nation's broken immigration system were remote at best.

But 26 states filed suit against those orders, and a divided Supreme Court had no definitive answer.

Obama said the ruling was "heartbreaking". He tried to offer assurances, saying his administration's priorities for deportations would continue to be new arrivals and those with criminal records.

(China Daily 06/25/2016 page9)