“One cannot praise immigration while working to disenfranchise immigrant families.”

The last time the Congress declared war on another country was during Word War II. Since then, our government has engage militarily in Korea, Vietnam, several conflicts in Central America, Bosnia, Libya and twice in the Gulf, mostly on presidential action. 

But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled to uphold freezing President Obama’s recent executive order that would have granted relief from deportation to 4.5 million undocumented immigrants. The court ruled in favor of 26 states, including Michigan, that are challenging the executive order as unconstitutional.

A Texas federal judge initially put a hold on Obama’s action in February. The executive order would have permitted undocumented immigrants who have American children to live and work without fear of deportation.

Xenophobia and anti-immigration sentiments are the driving force behind rejecting a sense of security to the parents of American children. It is unfair and cruel that Americans live in fear of their own government destroying their families.

At a time when Michigan and Detroit— its largest city— are desperate for tax-paying residents, Michigan’s attorney general Bill Schuette, joined fellow Republicans who are challenging immigration and inflicting pain on American families in the name of the Constitution. 

“America deserves a hopeful immigration policy,” Schuette said in a statement after joining the lawsuit last December. “Throughout our history, America has provided a beacon of hope across the world. But the president’s unilateral executive order on immigration, bypassing Congress, is constitutionally flawed.” 

The statement is a dishonest political ploy. One cannot praise immigration while working to disenfranchise immigrant families.

It is true that the president bypassed Congress, but not for lack of trying to work with lawmakers.

In 2013, the Senate approved a sensible bill that would have put undocumented immigrants on the path to citizenship after paying a fine. The bill, which received bipartisan support, would also have strengthened our border security. But Bill S. 744 has been languishing in the drawer of the Republican Speaker of the House for almost two years. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has refused to even put the bill to a vote in the House. A bill must pass both houses of Congress before it reaches the president’s desk.

According to the Center for American Progress, giving undocumented workers a legal status would increase the country’s GDP by $832 billion over the next 10 years, creating $69 billion in tax revenues.

Gov. Snyder has vowed to make Michigan a welcoming place for everybody and is working to bring thousands of skilled immigrants to live and work in Detroit. Schuette is working against the interests of the state.

Immigration reform, whether achieved by presidential action or Congress, is a sound choice ethically, economically and politically. Those who oppose it, including Schuette, are anti-immigration bigots.