The stakes in the 2016 presidential election just got even higher.

Last week’s Supreme Court ruling, which blocks President Barack Obama’s attempt to protect some 5 million illegals from deportation, now makes immigration the number one issue in November.

It also means that if illegal immigrants have any hope of achieving amnesty, they need Hillary Clinton to win the presidency and appoint a left-leaning Supreme Court justice.

And it looks like the Clinton campaign and illegals are already working hand-in-hand to make sure that happens. America to elect Hillary Clinton so she can appoint a left-leaning Supreme Court justice.

Some of the most important states in the election also have the biggest populations of illegal immigrants. A new report from the left-wing Center for American Progress finds 716,000 undocumented workers living in nine key swing states.

These are people who are now doubly motivated to influence the vote by hook or by crook.

It’s not unprecedented: In 2012, several non-citizens cast ballots in the 2012 presidential election in the swing state of Ohio.

And recently, an illegal immigrant was caught posing as deceased U.S. veteran and milking the system for tens of thousands in benefits.

Those two cases may not be enough to influence a national election, but consider those are just the ones who were caught. The real number may be much higher, especially with so many states refusing to adopt common-sense voter-ID laws – and the motivating factor of a Trump presidency.

“Our best guess, based upon extrapolations from the portion of the sample with a verified vote, is that 6.4 percent of non-citizens voted in 2008 and 2.2 percent of non-citizens voted in 2010,” The Washington Post reported in the lead up to the 2014 midterm elections. While a small percentage, political scientists Jesse Richman and David Earnes wrote that it “was large enough to plausibly account for Democratic victories in a few close elections.”

In an increasingly tight general election, that could conceivably tip the balance in key battleground states.

“The solution is in the hands of our community, and we will demonstrate the power of our vote come November,” Ben Monterroso, executive director of the illegal-friendly Mi Familia Vota, told CNN.

His organization has a huge presence in Florida, home to 229,000 illegals – and a vast network of support from others, including legal residents and U.S. citizens who turn out en masse in the Miami area.

With Mi Familia Vota registering Latino voters, this year could see record turnout.

Similarly, North Carolina – a state Barack Obama won by 14,000 votes in 2008 and lost in 2012 – has 152,000 illegals. If even 10 percent of them have children who are U.S. citizens of voting age, friends who are voters, or illegally register to vote themselves, it could swing the election.

Those two states alone have 44 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency – and when you consider that Democrats already start with an advantage of more than 200 electoral votes, that’s almost enough to push the election over the top.

There’s still hope for GOP candidate Donald Trump, however – because Americans are increasingly tired of paying for services for people who broke the law to get here and who don’t pay taxes.

And that could increase turnout on the GOP side… especially in those swing states with large illegal populations.

“We have to expand our base to be competitive in future elections. But for this particular election I can see scenarios where it helps both sides,” John Feehery, a Republican strategist and lobbyist who backs Trump, told Bloomberg. “There’s a bigger untapped pool of white voters who resent immigration, and they will flock to Trump.”

— The Horn editorial team