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Seattle-based U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly rejected the federal Justice Departments motion Monday to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to secure legal representation for undocumented children who faced deportation. The legal fight was one of several cases related to the governments handling of illegal immigration months after President Obama exercised executive authority to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit to advocate for a group of Salvadoran siblings who illegally entered America to escape gang violence. Federal officials asked Zilly to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds and argued it would be too expensive for the government to bankroll legal representation in immigration cases. Zilly ruled the immigrants' request for council constituted an argument for due process and required a legal response.

The Court is of the opinion the due process question plaintiffs have raised in this case is far too important to consign it, as defendants propose, to the perhaps perpetual loop of the administrative and judicial review process, Zilly's ruling said, according to Politico.

The unaccompanied children arrived in the country in 2013 after their father was killed in front of them by gang members outside their home. Federal officials found the children and located an unnamed family member, with whom they now live in Washington.

The ACLU has repeatedly questioned the federal governments use of immigration detention facilities to hold undocumented immigrants until a hearing to determine whether they will face deportation. The civil rights organization expressed disappointment last month when the federal government passed a new Department of Homeland Security funding bill that allocated more than $350 million toward these shelters.

Mandatory detention of people awaiting their immigration proceedings violates the right to due process and is inefficient and costly. Instead of funding immigration detention, Congress should appropriate money for community-based alternatives to detention with case management services, which have been proven to be effective and cost-efficient, the ACLU said in a statement.

Elsewhere, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments later this month and decide whether to lift Texas federal judge Andrew Hanens injunction which blocked the implementation of Obamas executive orders. Hanen approved the measure on behalf of 26 states, including Texas, who assert Obamas actions were unconstitutional.

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Immigration Reform 2015: Undocumented Children Allowed To Sue For Legal Representation, Judge Rules

A protester in front of Sen. Marco Rubio's Doral, Fla., office in 2013 urges Rubio to stop opposing the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families in the Senate's immigration bill. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption

A protester in front of Sen. Marco Rubio's Doral, Fla., office in 2013 urges Rubio to stop opposing the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families in the Senate's immigration bill.

Navigating cultural issues like same-sex marriage and immigration has proved tricky for Republicans.

The country has grown rapidly more accepting of gay and lesbian marriage and relationships. And despite a shrinking base of white support and a fast-growing Latino population, Republicans have struggled to adjust.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida on Monday hours before announcing his run for president showed how he will try to chart a path through these choppy waters. He drew a fine line on gay rights when asked about his comments on the Indiana law allowing businesses to express their "religious freedom." And despite being one of the shepherds of comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate, he blamed his backing away from the measure on President Obama.

"I don't believe it's right for a florist to say, I'm not going to provide you flowers because you're gay," Rubio said in an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep.

And yet, he still suggested there are proper grounds for a florist to refuse to serve a gay wedding.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., announces his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination during an event at the Freedom Tower in Miami. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., announces his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination during an event at the Freedom Tower in Miami.

"I think there's a difference between not providing services to a person because of their identity, who they are or who they love, and saying, I'm not going to participate in an event, a same-sex wedding, because that violates my religious beliefs. There's a distinction between those two things."

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As Country Changes, Rubio And Republicans Try To Adjust

A protester in front of Sen. Marco Rubio's Doral, Fla., office in 2013 urges Rubio to stop opposing the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families in the Senate's immigration bill. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption

A protester in front of Sen. Marco Rubio's Doral, Fla., office in 2013 urges Rubio to stop opposing the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families in the Senate's immigration bill.

Navigating cultural issues like same-sex marriage and immigration has proved tricky for Republicans.

The country has grown rapidly more accepting of gay and lesbian marriage and relationships. And despite a shrinking base of white support and a fast-growing Latino population, Republicans have struggled to adjust.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida on Monday hours before announcing his run for president showed how he will try to chart a path through these choppy waters. He drew a fine line on gay rights when asked about his comments on the Indiana law allowing businesses to express their "religious freedom." And despite being one of the shepherds of comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate, he blamed his backing away from the measure on President Obama.

"I don't believe it's right for a florist to say, I'm not going to provide you flowers because you're gay," Rubio said in an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep.

And yet, he still suggested there are proper grounds for a florist to refuse to serve a gay wedding.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., announces his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination during an event at the Freedom Tower in Miami. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., announces his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination during an event at the Freedom Tower in Miami.

"I think there's a difference between not providing services to a person because of their identity, who they are or who they love, and saying, I'm not going to participate in an event, a same-sex wedding, because that violates my religious beliefs. There's a distinction between those two things."

Originally posted here:
As Country Changes, Rubio, Republicans Try To Adjust

Marco Rubio is attacking Hillary Clinton on perhaps his most vulnerable issue as a presidential candidate: immigration.

Well, I dont know about others, but Ive done more immigration than Hillary Clinton ever did, Rubio said in an interview with NPR News released Tuesday.

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I mean, I helped pass an immigration bill in a Senate dominated by Democrats. And thats more than shes ever done. Shes given speeches on it, but shes never done anything on it, the Florida senator said.

We still need to do immigration reform and I think the American people are willing to do that and not until they know that future immigration is under control, Rubio told Fox News Sean Hannity Monday.

Rubio would require immigrants who arrive in the United States illegally to come forward, undergo a background check, pay a fine, start paying taxes and then, over time, receive a work visa, he said. Once people have proven themselves over a decade, they can apply for citizenship.

Rubio, who joined the Senate in 2011, previously signed on to the so-called Gang of Eight Senate bill that would have overhauled the countrys immigration system but later backed away when conservatives decried the legislation as allowing amnesty for the roughly 11 million people currently living in the United States illegally.

Rubio came out swinging against the former secretary of state during his campaign announcement Monday, calling her a leader from yesterday promising to take us back to yesterday.

He also fielded questions about his perceived lack of experience in multiple interviews.

President Obama has been a failure not because he was only in the Senate for four years hes been a failure because his ideas are bad, Rubio told Hannity.

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Rubio: 'I've done more immigration than Hillary Clinton ever did'

by Esther Yu-Hsi Lee Posted on April 13, 2015 at 8:00 amUpdated: April 12, 2015 at 11:15 pm

"How Marco Rubio Went From Backing Immigration Reform To Berating DREAMers"

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is expected to announce his 2016 presidential run Monday at Freedom Tower in Florida, or the Ellis Island of the South, so monikered because the center offered relief to Cuban refugees seeking political asylum from Fidel Castros regime between 1962 and 1974. But despite his announcement at a site that symbolizes hope and freedom for refugees, Rubio has not lately been the friend to immigration reform he once was.

Some political analysts believe that Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants from the Latino-heavy districts of Florida, could appeal to Latinos and could fit the description of a Republican nominee who scores somewhere in the mid-40s, or better, among Hispanic voters, as pollster Whit Ayres stated at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

But even if Rubio is on the face of it, an immigration success story through his Cuban exile parents, Latinos and immigrant advocates arent necessarily into him. Thats hardly a surprise: In the past two years, Rubio has swung wildly between supporting a permanent fix to bring the countrys 11.2 million undocumented immigrants into the formal American society and berating so-called DREAMers, or undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children.

Rubios tap dance comes in part from a diverse potential constituency that includes appeasing both Tea Party supporters who helped put him in the Senate in 2010, and Latinos, who are quickly becoming something of an outreach necessity for the Republican Party to take the White House in 2016. Latinos are also the fastest-growing voter electorate.

For more than 40 percent of Latinos living in Florida, immigration policy is a personal matter. Rubio acknowledged as much in 2013, stating, the immigration issue is a gateway issue for Hispanics, no doubt about it. The Republican National Committees 2012 autopsy report was just as explicit, Hispanic voters tell us our Partys position on immigration has become a litmus test, measuring whether we are meeting them with a welcome mat or a closed door.

As Rubio has moved toward a possible presidential announcement, he has increasingly distanced himself from any sort of comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship or even deportation relief for undocumented immigrants of the sort he championed just two years ago as a sponsor of the Senates reform bill. Below is a timeline of his most prominent positions.

2012: RUBIO STATES THAT DREAMERS ARE REAL PEOPLE. Immigrant advocates interrupted Rubios speech in January, asking him please help us, the immigrant community. Rubio responded, These young people are very brave to be here today. They raise a very legitimate issue. I ask that you let them stay. I dont stand for what they claim I stand for.

In April, Rubio reached out to immigrant advocates and DREAMers to discuss an alternative bill that he was crafting that would stop short of creating a pathway to citizenship, but still grant deportation relief to some immigrants brought to the country as children.

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How Marco Rubio Went From Backing Immigration Reform To ...