The US Supreme Court dealt a major blow to President Barack Obama’s unilateral attempt to enact amnesty for illegal immigrants Thursday. And in response the “big three” networks let their feeling be known during their evening broadcast, where they threw a pity party for the president. “A crushing disappointment today for the Obama White House and the president's go at it alone immigration strategy,” said NBC anchor Lester Holt on Nightly News.
Most of the network reporters seemed disappointed. “The president had tried to provide legal status for millions with the stroke of a pen,” reported ABC’s Jon Karl on World News Tonight, “But the gridlocked Supreme Court said no.”
CBS’s Jan Crawford seemed to excuse the president’s unconstitutional action on Evening News, “The president announced the program in 2014 after congress failed to pass immigration reform.” Crawford continued, “The executive action would have shielded up to 4 million illegal immigrants from deportation, parents with children who are here legally.”
It didn’t take long for the coverage to turn political. NBC’s Pete Williams knocked Republicans for praising the outcome of the case, “Because a tie doesn't decide anything, the ruling says nothing about presidential power, though Republicans acted like it did.”
Karl compared the responses of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. He even played a clip from a Clinton campaign video showing how well she’ll treat illegal immigrants:
[Hillary campaign video]
LITTLE GIRL: I'm scared for them [her parents], because of the deportation. I'm scared that they're going to be deported.
HILLARY CLINTON: Come here, babe. I'm going to do everything I can so you don't have to be scared.
The ABC reporter was also put off by Trumps plan, “he's also said he would deport all those undocumented people here in the country.”
Transcripts below:
NBC
Nightly News
June 23, 2016
7:01:15 PM EasternLESTER HOLT: Good evening. A crushing disappointment today for the Obama White House and the president's go at it alone immigration strategy. His executive action, a controversial move to keep some 4 million undocumented immigrants from being deported first ran aground in an appeals court. And we learn today that's where it comes to rest after a deadlocked U.S. Supreme court announced it was unable to rule raising questions about the limits of presidential authority and leaving millions of immigrant families with questionable futures. Justice correspondent Pete Williams has details.
[Cuts to video]
PETE WILLIAMS: The ruling is a huge blow to the Olando Martinez and Isabell Agular and more than 4 million more adults like them that came here illegally, but whose children were born here and plan to stay.
ISABELL AGULAR: They will have opportunity to be whatever they want to do in the life.
WILLIAMS: President Obama wanted to let those adults stay, too, and get work permits but lower courts blocked his immigration policy and today, the eight-member Supreme Court, tied 4-4, unable to decide whether the president had the authority to order such a sweeping change. That leaves the program unenforceable, a disappointment to Hilary Abonita, of El Salvador, whose daughter was born here.
HILARY ABONITA: My situation continues the same thing. I like when I came to this country, so I'm still waiting for something positive for my life, for my family.
WILLIAMS: The administration will not be move to deport those here illegally if they don't commit crimes but they cannot apply for work permits.
BARACK OBAMA: I think it is heartbreaking for millions of immigrants who made their lives here, who have raised families here, who hoped for the opportunity to work, pay taxes, serve in the military and more fully contribute to this country we all love.
WILLIAMS: Because a tie doesn't decide anything, the ruling says nothing about presidential power, though Republicans acted like it did.
PAUL RYAN: And it's a win in the fight to restore the separation of powers. Presidents don't write laws, congress writes laws.
WILLIAMS: The program’s future will be political not a legal one. Hillary Clinton said she'd fight to keep and it Donald Trump says he'd abandon it.
[Cuts back to live]
The court also today gave a big boost to affirmative action in college admissions. It upheld the program at the University of Texas at Austin and said affirmative action makes classes more diverse, an educational plus.
...
ABC
World News Tonight
June 23, 2016
6:34:30 PM EasternDAVID MUIR: In the meantime tonight, we turn to a flashpoint reignited in America tonight over this question. Should they stay or should they go? The Supreme Court today blocking the president's plan to allow 5 million undocumented immigrants to get legal status and keep them from being deported. Outside the court, runners with the decision, just after it was handed down today. It was summed up in just one sentence from a divided court. Demonstrators on both sides, and this boy, wearing a shirt reading "Don't deport my mom." Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump immediately jumping into this with very different views tonight. As the president declared today, Americans will decide this in November. ABC's Jonathan Karl is at the Supreme Court.
[Cuts to video]
PROTESTERS: Yes we can!
JON KARL: Protests over that stinging defeat for the president. The president had tried to provide legal status for millions with the stroke of a pen. Mostly undocumented immigrants who are the parents of citizens. But the gridlocked Supreme Court said no. Leaving in place a lower court ruling that said the president had exceeded the power of his office. The president's reaction? Disappointment.
BARACK OBAMA: We're going to have to decide whether we're a people who accept the cruelty of ripping children from their parents' arms, or whether we actually value families and keep them together for the sake of all of our communities.
KARL: Donald Trump had an entirely different reaction, saying in a state, "Today's 4-4 supreme court ruling has blocked one of the most unconstitutional actions ever undertaken by a president." Immigration has been a central campaign theme since day one.
DONALD TRUMP: I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.
KARL: The contrast with Hillary Clinton couldn't be starker. Her campaign released this video earlier this year of a girl worried about her parents' undocumented status.
[Hillary campaign video]
LITTLE GIRL: I'm scared for them, because of the deportation. I'm scared that they're going to be deported.
HILLARY CLINTON: Come here, babe. I'm going to do everything I can so you don't have to be scared.
KARL: Clinton responded to the ruling in both English and Spanish. Saying, "This decision is a stark reminder of the harm Donald Trump would do to our families, our communities and our country."
[Cuts back to live]
MUIR: And Jon Karl with us live tonight. Donald Trump reacting today before flying overseas, and Jon, Hillary Clinton responding within minutes after this decision was handed down?
KARL: David, Hillary Clinton made it clear that if she is elected president, within her first 100 days, she will push congress to enact immigration reform including a path to citizenship for all those undocumented people in the country right now. Donald Trump, of course, his first act would be to build that wall and he's also said he would deport all those undocumented people here in the country.
...
CBS
Evening News
June 23, 2016
6:31:20 PM EasternSCOT PELLEY: President Obama's attempt to impose immigration reform by executive action was blocked today by judicial action. A tie in the Supreme Court was a defeat for the president who had sidestepped Congress with his plan to spare millions of illegal immigrants from being deported. Here's chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford.
[Cuts to video]
PROTESTERS: The people united will never be defeated.
JAN CRAWFORD: Protesters gathered in front of the court, waiting for the justices to announce the case. But instead of a decision, there was deadlock, a one-line order by a court divided 4-4, keeping in place the lower court ruling striking down the president's program. The non-decision effectively ends the president's efforts to reform immigration law by executive action.
BARACK OBAMA: And the fact that the Supreme Court wasn't able to issue a decision today doesn't just set the system back even further. It takes us further from the country we aspire to be.
CRAWFORD: The president announced the program in 2014 after congress failed to pass immigration reform.
OBAMA: There are actions I have the legal authority to take as president.
CRAWFORD: The executive action would have shielded up to 4 million illegal immigrants from deportation, parents with children who are here legally, like 45-year-old Isabelle from Honduras. Two of her three children were born in the U.S., and today they all were outside the court. She says she lives in constant fear of immigration officials.
ISABELLE: You know, it’s hard every day. Here, immigration is in your door, in the next building.
CRAWFORD: But opponents argue that the president ran roughshod over congress and had no constitutional authority to act on his own and lower courts agreed. Mike Hethmon, senior counsel at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, said the program would have encouraged more illegal immigration.
MIKE HETHMON: The president's idea that he can unilaterally not enforce our laws because of some perceived political benefit, it's-- it's a dangerous and abhorrent idea, and thank goodness, you know, we have this-- this guidance, as limited as it is, from the Supreme Court.
CRAWFORD: The president used the case to argue a court of eight justices was unworkable. He again urged Senate Republicans to confirm Judge Merrick Garland to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
[Cuts back to live]
But Garland could not have been confirmed in time to hear this case. And, Scott, if Justice Scalia were still on the court, the decision probably would have been 5-4 against the president, with the sweeping ruling scaling back his use of executive power.
PELLEY: And this doesn't mean there will be mass deportations. It's just a return to the status quo.
