US President Barack Obama is on a roll. Aside from the Supreme Court passing the Affordable Care Act, it also ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in all states. Now citizens are waiting and expecting results on his immigration reform bills.

Unfortunately, two of the judges on the three-judge panel that will hear the case next week are likely to put a spike on Obama's forward momentum. The judges announced by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals are the same two appointees that shut down the Justice Department's request to let Obama's infamous immigration bills to go into effect pending the court's appeal. This has resulted in numerous eligible undocumented immigrants being in limbo as they cannot apply for the programs that were designed to halt deportation proceedings.

The bills at stake are the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents and the amended 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that gives teens and young adults who were born outside the US but who were raised in the country the chance to file for protection from deportation.

An estimated 5.5 million children who are US citizens already, but with undocumented parents, will be affected by the Fifth Circuit Court's decision. If the court arrives at an affirmative decision, the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability Program (DAPA) can give amnesty to millions of these immigrants.

Unsurprisingly, the move has created pushback from Republicans but the president has been defending this policy since November, telling his critics that his decision – to offer a deal with illegal immigrants who have been staying and working in the US for at least five years - is "lawful" and cannot be described as amnesty.

As the president puts it, "amnesty is the immigration system we have today — millions of people who live here without paying their taxes or playing by the rules, while politicians use the issue to scare people and whip up votes at election time."