Story highlights Raul A. Reyes: 5th Circuit Court of Appeals' foot-dragging on Obama's executive actions on immigration could effectively kill it

He says inaction could void initiative to help Dreamers and their families, leaving U.S. even further from fixing broken immigration system

Raul A. Reyes is an attorney and member of the USA Today board of contributors. Follow him on Twitter @RaulAReyes. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) Call it death by delay. It has been nearly a year since President Obama announced his executive action on immigration. Last November, he outlined his plans to grant deportation relief to certain categories of undocumented immigrants, expanding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program (the so-called Dreamers) and adding the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, or DAPA.

While immigrant rights groups cheered his move, Texas and 25 other states quickly moved to block it in the courts. The fate of his proposal is tied up with a panel of judges of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

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The decision by the 5th Circuit panel is overdue. By holding off on a ruling, the judges are opening themselves to charges of political partisanship. Whatever the reason for the ruling's delay, the court is serving neither justice nor the American people by slow-walking a decision on Obama's executive action.

By their own standards, the decision from the 5th Circuit panel is late. According to the frequently asked questions section on its website, "the court's goal is to issue an opinion generally within 60 days after argument or submission." But final arguments on the case were held on July 10, nearly four months ago, and this is a case in which the court agreed to an expedited appeal. There is no sound reason for the court to be dragging its heels

It's not like we don't know how the court is going to rule. It will almost certainly uphold the existing injunction blocking implementation of Obama's programs. We know this because the court already visited the main arguments in May, when a panel denied a request from the Obama administration for an emergency stay (temporary stop) of the injunction.