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Immigration activists in New Orleans accused the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of stalling Thursday on a ruling on President Barack Obama's proposed immigration executive actions. The activists, who said they would begin a nine-day fast just across the street from the 5thCircuit Court,are working against time.

The longer a decision is held, the less time there is available for the case to make its way to the Supreme Court. If the case doesn't make it there during the current session, it appears unlikely that Obama will be able to act on the proposals before he leaves office in January 2017.

"That's our window to take the decision to the Supreme Court," Sulma Arias, an activist with the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, said of the nine days they will be fasting. "We feel they've had enough time to rule."

The three-judge panel heard arguments July 10 regarding Obama's proposal, which would provide deportation relief to an estimated 5 million undocumented immigrants, including the parents of American citizens who came to the country illegally. The court's website indicates that it tries to issue opinions within 60 days of hearing arguments. Sunday will mark the 100th day.

The White House is reportedly expecting to lose the appeal, chiefly because the court has disagreed with the Obama administration before.

U.S. Deportations Over Time | InsideGov

If a decision is reached soon, the earliest a final decision could be made on the president's immigration overhaul would be next summer. That would give the president enough time to take action on a very small number of cases -- likely just a few hundred thousand could qualify in time.

This means that, ultimately, the president's immigration overhaul could ultimatelybe left mostly in the hands of whoever is the next president.

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Immigration Reform 2015: Is Obama's Undocumented ...

San Antonio, Tex. Drawing a distinction between herself and President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that if she wins the White House, she would not use mass deportation or separate families while pursuing immigration reform.

The evidence is clear, comprehensive immigration reform, where we bring people out of the shadows, will be good for the economy, [and] will raise wages, said Clinton in a question-and-answer session in San Antonio with the president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

I will not be breaking up families under deportation, Clinton said. I dont think that the way to do that is to undermine the family structure, and undermine the productivity of people who are (contributing) to our economy.

Clintons appearance at the chamber event marks the fifth such question and answer session with presidential candidates that the head of the group, Javier Palomarez, launched this year.

Her appearance came exactly one week after GOP candidate and frontrunner, Donald Trump, was to have participated in a session with the chamber but abruptly backed out days before.

With the exception of Clintons question-and-answer, all have been held in Washington D.C., where the chamber is headquartered.

Clinton frequently bashed the Republican presidential candidates for what she said was the hostility toward Latinos and immigrants in their rhetoric and proposed policies.

It has just added to the ongoing problem we face [in the country] that it is O.K., still, in American to be condemning some groups of people with this kind of rhetoric, she said, adding that hostile talk encourages some people to act in a way that is prejudiced and hurtful.

Many people criticized Trump recently after a supporter at one of his campaign rallies maligned Muslims, and the candidate failed to take issue with it during the rally. Many people also criticized Republican presidential candidates for not assailing or taking too long to condemn Trump for portraying some Mexican immigrants as drug dealers and rapists when he launched his campaign.

Anyone in a position of leadershipdoes have a responsibility to call people outwhen they say Mexican immigrants are drug dealers and rapists. Somebody needs to say Basta!

Clinton said that as president she would work on reforming parts of immigration from the first day.

She said she would streamline the process for applying for programs that Obama implemented through executive action that would spare some undocumented immigrants from deportation for a few years, and allow them to obtain work permits, drivers licenses and some federal benefits.

Clinton recalled being part of church youth program that involved looking after the children of migrant workers while their parents worked. She recalled seeing the parents return every day in a ramshackle bus.

When those little children saw that bus they started to jump up and down, Clinton said. The parents, as tired as they were, were bending over and scooping them up.

She recalled telling her mother: Theyre just like we are. Theyre just families like we are.

Asked by Palomarez if she would pick Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro the former mayor of San Antonio as vice president, Clinton demurred.

She sang his praises, however, suggesting shed like, at the very least, to have him in her administration.

I think really highly of him, she said, adding that she was thrilled to have received his endorsement shortly before. Im really looking hard at him for anything because thats how good he is.

Clinton added that she would work to make it easier for Latino small business owners to find information about launching ventures and accessing services.

She also praised Latinas for starting businesses at a higher rate than other Americans.

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The 2016Democratic presidential candidates say they support immigration reform, but some immigrants wonder if they can actually deliver.

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Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders faced off in a sharp Democratic debate hosted by CNN. Here are the best attack moments from the candidates. VPC

Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, and Hillary Rodham Clinton laugh during the CNN Democratic presidential debate Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, in Las Vegas.(Photo: John Locher/Associated Press)

LAS VEGASThe leading 2016Democratic presidential candidates support the big picture of comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants in the United States, and support preserving or even expanding President Barack Obama's deferred-deportation programs.

The differences between Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, her main, liberal challenger Bernie Sanders and lesser-known rivals Martin O'Malley,Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb often are degrees,shades and subtleties, which might help explainwhy the topic didn't come up until more than an hour into their first debate on Tuesday night.

Unlike the Republican primary race, which has been characterized by calls for more border security and at-times harsh rhetoric aimed at Mexican immigrants, the Democrats sparred over questions on the other side of the issue, such as whether guest-worker programs would exploit foreign labor andwhether "Obamacare" should be opened up to undocumented immigrants and their children.

O'Malley, a former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor, has proposed doing so.

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Clinton agrees. "I want to open up the opportunity for immigrants to be able to buy into the exchanges under the Affordable Care Act," she said. "I think to go beyond that, as I understand what Governor O'Malley has recommended, so that they would get the same subsidies ... it would be very difficult to administer" at least without comprehensive immigration reform, which Congress has tried and failed to pass for a decade.

But members of the influential andmajority-Hispanic Culinary Unionwatching the debate wanted to hear more from the candidates: How would they succeed in persuading Congress to enact far-reaching immigration reformswhenObama has failed?

USA TODAY

Clinton punches back at first Democratic debate

O'Malley said immigration reform has been gridlocked because of "old thinking" he heard from other candidates on the stage namely Clinton.O'Malley has emerged asan outspoken champion of immigrants, particularly the unaccompanied minors from Central America who surged across the border in 2014. As governor, O'Malley signed Maryland's version of the Dream Act.

"I would go further than President Obama has on DACA and DAPA," O'Malley said, referring to the deferred-action on deportation programs that Obama created using executive action. "We are a nation of immigrants. We are made stronger by immigrants. ... I am for a generous, compassionate America that says we're all in this together."

Those programs have been blockedby legal action by Texas and two dozen other states, including Arizona.

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The Democratic candidates shared the stage in a two-hour debate hosted by CNN and Facebook at the Wynn Las Vegas resort and casinoon the Las Vegas Strip.

The debate's location was significant: not only is Nevada an influential early state in the nomination process, it is a considered a swing-state battleground for the general election. And immigration issues loom large over the hospitality industry that is crucial to the Las Vegas economy, and because Nevada proportionately has one of the largest undocumented populations.

At the headquarters of the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226,about 200 members watched the debate on two large screen TVs in the unions main hall in the shadow of the Stratosphere Casino, just north of The Strip. The union isan influential force in Democratic politics, and thelocal has55,000 members, 56 percent of them Latinos, and many of them immigrants. The members represent 95 percent of casino workers on the strip and downtown. Theywork as housekeepers, cooks, bartenders, food servers andbell men.

Some Latino union members who attended the watch party were glad to hear the Democratic candidates say they support comprehensive immigration reforms that include a pathway to citizenship, which clashed with the positions on immigration taken by Republicans candidates.

Butsome Latino union members remained skeptical. They pointed out that Obama also promised to deliver comprehensive immigration reform when he ran for office but failed to deliver.

Culinary workers watch the debate

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Its exactly what we want to hear, but thats all it is right now. Weve heard this before with the last time we were supporting President Obama, said Efrain Becerra, 38, who works in room service at Harrahs Casino.

Becerra, an immigrant from Mexico and a legal resident of the U.S., said he was disappointed that none of the candidates offered any concrete steps on how they would get Congress to pass immigration reform, which will take support from both Republicans and Democrats.

I was hoping at least one of them to break off and say this is how we are going to get there, Becerra said. We want to see if anyone has an action plan. That is really what we are looking for. We dont want to hear them say we support immigration reform. I want to hear them say how you think we are going to get to one. And that hasnt happened yet.

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What if the U.S. ended birthright citizenship?

Miguel Martinez, 54, a casino porter at the Bellagio, agreed.

They say a lot of things, but right now these are just words, said Martinez, an immigrant from Mexico who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen.

However,Francisco Rufino Parra, 39, a cook at the Paris Hotel, said he knows candidates make promises they dont keep, but he believes they are sincere this time after Democrats took a beating in the 2014 mid-term elections.

I really think that this time they really think that this issue needs to be dealt with because of what happened last time. It didnt get dealt with and nobody got out and voted. So it hurts them, Rufino Parra said.

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The Democratic field's support of immigration reform gives voters a sharp contrast with the Republicans, whose front-runner, celebrity billionaire Donald Trump, has called Mexican immigrants "rapists" and drug-runners and has vowed to construct a border wall at Mexico's expense and try to undo the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants who are born on U.S. soil.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, one of 15 Republicans still in the GOP race, at one point tweeted: "The Democrat plan: Give amnesty AND#ObamaCareto illegal immigrants.#DemDebate"

Clinton, the party's front-runner who lost the 2008 nomination to Obama, this year has embraced the immigration issue in a big way.

Earlier this year, in appearances in North Las Vegas and in Las Vegas, Clinton vowed to push for comprehensive reform that includes"a real path to citizenship" for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants who have settled in the United States. And if Capitol Hill failed to cooperate, she would use her executive powers as president to go even further than Obama in shielding millions of immigrants from deportation.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont, backs a pathway to citizenship and supported versions of the Dream Act, which would have benefited young immigrants brought to the United States as children,diverges from comprehensiveimmigration reform over the issue of guest or temporary foreign workers.

Sandersopposed a 2007 bipartisan comprehensive immigration co-authored by then-U.S. Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and he was asked about it at the debate.

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"I voted against that piece of legislation because it had guest-worker provisions in it, which the Southern Poverty Law Center talked about being semi-slavery," Sanders said. "Guest workers are coming, they're working under terrible conditions, but if they stand up for their rights, they're thrown out of the country. I wasnot the the only progressive to vote against that legislation for that reason."

Despite reservations about a continuing flow of foreign workers, Sanders in 2013 ultimately voted for the so-called "Gang of Eight" bipartisan immigration bill, which was ignored by the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives and never became law.

"My deal right now, and always has been, is that when you have 11 million undocumented people in this country, we need comprehensive immigration reform," Sanders said. "We need a path toward citizenship. We need to take people out of the shadows."

Chafee was a liberal Republican while representing Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate; he also voted in 2006 for a major immigration-reform bill and against the Secure Fence Act. He was elected Rhode Island governor as an independent, and his administration was marked by immigrant friendly policies.

Fifth candidate Jim Webb, a conservative Democrat and former Secretary of the Navy,is more of an exception; as a U.S. senator from Virginia, he also opposed the Kyl-Kennedycomprehensive billand generally did not have what reform advocates considera pro-immigrant record.

Asked about opening up "Obamacare" to undocumented immigrants, Webb said, "I wouldn't have a problem with that."

During the debate, Webb also brought up an unsuccessfulamendment he offered during the 2007 immigration-reform deliberations that would have given a pathway to citizenship to people who have "put down their roots" and met a series of standards. However, reform backers have saidWebb's amendment was not pro-immigrant andactually would have dramatically curtailed the number of immigrants who could have gotten legalization.

"We need a comprehensive reform and we need to be able to define our borders," Webb said.

Ben Monterroso, executive director of Mi Familia Vota, said jobs, health care, and education are the most important issues for Latino voters. But immigration is a gateway issue because many have mixed families families where some members are U.S. citizens and others are undocumented immigrants.

Therefore, many Latinos want to hear candidates views on immigration before they are ready to listen to their views on other key issues, he said.

The issue of immigration is one of respect and trust, he said.

Monterroso said Latino voters want to first hear how candidates treat the issue of immigration and then how they plan to address the undocumented immigrants in the country.

The nonpartisan Mi Famila Vota is backed by the Service Employees International Union and works to increase the number of Latino voters in the U.S.

He said Latinos hold the key to the White House because they have the power to swing three crucial states, Nevada, Colorado and Florida. Earlier in the day, Mi Familia Vota workers stood outside Marianas Supermarket in southeast Las Vegaswith clipboard asking shoppers if they were registered to vote.

The organizations goal is to register 80,000 to 90,000 new Latino voters by 2016 in six states:Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Texas. The goal is part of a national push to turn out 15 million Latino voters in 2016, up from about 12 million in 2012.

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Cristina Martinez arrives at work at 4 a.m., ties a white apron high across her chest, and starts preparing a lamb cooked in vapor for 10 hours.

An hour later, she and her husband, Ben Miller, open their South Philadelphia restaurant, Barbacoa, serving premium tacos - and hefty sides of activism - in their bid to mobilize restaurateurs on behalf of the many undocumented immigrants who work in America's kitchens.

Hosting organizational meetings and screening documentaries, the couple hope to spark a culinary crusade in a city famous for its restaurant scene - and pressure the deadlocked Congress to overhaul the immigration laws.

"Mexican undocumented workers are in every restaurant in this country," Miller wrote in one online post. "They cook, clean, and busboy for Marc Vetri, Steven Starr, Jose Garces, every hotel, every university dining hall, and in our restaurant . . . as well."

It's no secret that immigrants, many of them undocumented, are essential to America's $550-billion-a-year restaurant trade. The Pew Hispanic Center has estimated that 20 percent of the nation's 2.6 million chefs, head cooks, and line cooks are here illegally, as are 28 percent of the 360,000 dishwashers.

"All I want," Miller said in an interview, "is for some chefs to step up and say, 'Yes, we are in favor of making a way for our undocumented workers. They matter.' "

The Philadelphia-area restaurant all-stars who Miller has called out on Facebook have thus far stayed silent. A spokeswoman for Garces said he declined to comment. Neither Vetri nor Starr responded to multiple interview requests.

But others said Miller's message begs an important conversation.

David Suro, a native of Mexico who opened the Center City restaurant Tequilas 29 years ago, estimated the city's commercial kitchens and dining rooms employ at least 1,500 Mexican immigrants as cooks, servers, busboys, and dishwashers. He said his policy is in line with what he believes is true of the other major restaurant employers: "Anyone hired must have papers."

Proper papers?

That's not always so easily determined, Suro said, acknowledging the possibility of forgeries. "But they pay their taxes" through payroll withholding, he said, "and are very hardworking."

Tom McCusker, chef-owner of Honest Tom's Tacos in West Philadelphia, supports Miller as someone who "kind of broke the barrier to talk openly about this."

But he said Miller needs big-name support if his cause is to get lift. "If one of those dudes signed off," he said, "we could run with this."

What Miller, 31, has in mind is a movement built on the testimonials of prominent chefs who might be more comfortable talking about a sensitive subject if they tackle it together. He wants the federal government to create restaurant guest-worker permits so workers can "travel home for five days at Christmas," or attend family funerals, without fear of arrest. He wants recognition that anyone who dines out benefits from the labor of immigrants, many of whom are undocumented.

A quirky, unlikely standard bearer - who said he lived in shelters for a while and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor indecent assault charge a decade ago - Miller said his knowledge of the restaurant scene comes from having worked at two prominent Philadelphia eateries alongside people he knew to be undocumented but otherwise upstanding.

"While they are here, they are paying taxes," he said. "They are consumers, shopping at the Acme, willing to do the [low-level kitchen] jobs . . . that kids who come out of culinary school don't want to do."

His desire to use Barbacoa as a platform for social change, he said, is driven largely by his love for Martinez. They met working at another restaurant, and married in 2012.

She was a 6-year-old in Mexico, she said, when her mother and father taught her to cook the succulent barbecue they sold at open-air markets.

Forty-six and moonfaced, with black hair in a tight bun now, she moves by rote in Barbacoa's kitchen, where her thoughts often turn to her daughter, Karla, 23, a nursing student in the Mexican state of Michoacan.

Martinez said she came illegally to the United States in 2009 to earn money for Karla's tuition and expenses, about $2,000 monthly, which was unattainable as a barbacoa peddler in Mexico.

Then a single mother of four, she had made the perilous trek across the desert to the U.S. before and knew the drill: a bit of peyote to battle fatigue; a plastic bottle to scrounge water from cow troughs; the clothes on her back.

Caught by U.S. Border Patrol and fingerprinted in 2006, Martinez has an "unlawful presence" on her record, which makes her ineligible for a green card despite her marriage to Miller, a U.S. citizen, who was raised in Easton, Pa.

Among the hardships of being undocumented, she said, the hardest is being unable to go home to see her family and return to Philadelphia without another desert crossing and at least $8,000 to pay the human smugglers. She could leave and try to return legally but the law bars people with her immigration status from applying for 10 years.

So the couple behind Barbacoa, which began as a lunch cart near their home on South Eighth Street, and opened as a storefront on South 11th in July, saw no alternative but to add movement-building to their menu.

On Sept. 20, with 25 people in attendance, they screened the documentary The Hand That Feeds, about working conditions at a New York City sandwich shop. A meeting to discuss an unspecified "direct action" campaign to take effect in the spring is scheduled for Nov. 8.

Miller imagines a "show of solidarity" in which restaurant owners would close for a day and issue a joint statement to raise consciousness about the needs of the industry's workforce.

The National Restaurant Association, the country's largest restaurant industry group, has lobbied Congress for immigration reform, including "a path to legalization" for undocumented immigrants. The industry has a lot of power, Miller said.

"Of course, it's a personal story, with my wife and me," he said. "But it is also about our customers and colleagues in food service. We want these people to have stability and comfort."

He said he's not advocating just opening the borders. But he wants debate.

"Donald Trump has his podium. He has his microphone," Miller said. "We can't let that be the only one."

There is some precedent for prominent people, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking out on immigration. "Our businesses broke the law by employing them," he told Congress in 2006. "[But] our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported."

Speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week, Washington, D.C.-based restaurateur Jose Andres, who recently backed out of a deal to open a restaurant in a Trump hotel after Trump disparaged Mexicans and called for mass deportations, echoed the sentiment. "Who is going to be feeding America," said Andres, "if we kick [out] everybody that is feeding America?"

For Barbacoa, immigration reform is about human rights and skin in the game at every level.

"I'm not saying anything that controversial," Miller said. "I just don't want it to be an option for a chef to look the other way."

mmatza@phillynews.com

215-854-2541@MichaelMatza1

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South Philly chef's special: immigration reform

Texas may be the face of opposition to President Barack Obamas executive actions todelay the deportation of some undocumented immigrants, but not all leaders in the state agree. Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Judge Sarah Eckhardt of Travis County, where Austin is located, want the lawsuit that Texas and other states filed against the program dropped, according to the Texas Tribune.

I urge these state leaders to drop opposition to these federal programs because of the benefits they can provide to our local communities, Adler said Saturday while standing with undocumented immigrants at the nonprofit Workers Defense Project.

Adler said at the rally that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott should meet with immigrant families in the community. Such a meeting, he said, could help in understanding the harm brought on them by trying to block Obamas immigration reform efforts.

In 2014, Obama tried to implement the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, also known as DAPA, but Texas and 25 other states blocked Obamas efforts soon after. Abbott filled the lawsuit while he was state attorney general, the Texas Tribune reported.

Those who have filed the lawsuit are playing politics with peoples lives, Eckhardt said. Immigrants are integral to the economic success of the country, she added.

A federal judge in February blocked Obamas executive actions on immigration, saying his administration didnt allow for a longer notification and comment period as required, CNN reported. In May, a federal appeals court sided with Texas and the 25 other states challenging the order, saying that eligible undocumented immigrants cant apply for Obamas program while it is being appealed.

Protesters gathered outside Abbotts home in April, asking him to drop the lawsuit against DAPA and sit down to talk with families about immigration, according to KTRK-TV in Houston.

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