Obama's Immigration Problem Will Become Someone Else's

The Supreme Court’s one-sentence decision today on President Barack Obama’s immigration policy resolves nothing. That’s unfortunate -- usually (though not always) the court is a little more helpful -- but it’s also oddly appropriate: This is a political problem, not a legal one.

The case itself resulted from a cascade of political failures. The House failed to follow the Senate’s lead and pass comprehensive immigration reform, which would have resolved the status of millions of long-resident undocumented immigrants among other goals. Obama failed to work with Republicans after the 2014 elections and instead responded with aggressive executive actions to achieve, temporarily, what Congress had not -- shielding some 4 million undocumented immigrants from deportation and making them eligible for work permits.