Republican rivals rip Trump's planWASHINGTON, Nov 11 : President Barack Obama's administration on Tuesday asked the US Supreme Court to uphold measures shielding around four million undocumented migrants from deportation.
Thrusting the country's top court into the position of arbiter in a charged political row, the Justice Department said it would challenge lower court rulings that blocked Obama's efforts to reform immigration policy.
A year ago, Obama tried to bypass Congress by ordering government agencies to focus on deporting serious criminals, rather than undocumented immigrants who live and work in the United States.
Republicans and Democrats agree that sweeping immigration reform is long overdue, but bitterly disagree about how to do it.
Conservatives -- in the throes of the 2016 election cycle -- reacted furiously, saying the president had effectively granted amnesty to people who broke the law by entering the United States illegally.
They also argued that Obama had gone well beyond his executive powers, prompting governors of 26 US states to take up the case.
A federal court in Texas in February ruled in their favour -- putting the program on hold and prompting a White House appeal, which failed on Monday.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump reiterated his pledge during Tuesday's Republican presidential debate to deport millions of undocumented workers, a plan trashed by rivals including Jeb Bush, who warned overzealous anti-immigrant sentiment would be a gift to Democrats.
"We will have a wall. The wall will be built. The wall will be successful," Trump, the Republican frontrunner and real estate tycoon, said about the partition he has vowed to build on the southern US border with Mexico.     ?AFP