The Supreme Court last week upheld the separation of powers as provided by the Constitution, ending President Barack Obama’s attempt to change immigration law by fiat.

Driven by crushing poverty illegal immigrants have flooded across the border. They have found ready employment, filling vital but tiring manual labor jobs Americans shun. But they have placed strains on public education, healthcare and law enforcement.

Late in 2014, the president issued executive orders temporarily lifting the threat of deportation for as many as 5 million illegal immigrants who have been in the country for five years and who have children born in the United States, and to children brought here by their parents prior to Jan. 1, 2010.

His orders also granted these immigrants temporary legal status and work permits.

Twenty-six states sued, alleging the action violated the president’s constitutional duty to faithfully execute laws passed by Congress, and had not been carried out in accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act.

The district court in Texas and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. On a 4-4 vote due to the death this year of Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court leaves in place the ruling by the federal appeals court in New Orleans.

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress sole power to “establish a uniform rule of naturalization.” Congress has enacted laws that outline the process for immigrants to be granted legal status in the United States.

In granting illegal immigrants temporary legal status and work permits contrary to those laws, the president exceeded his constitutional authority.

We concede that the president and his law enforcement agencies have great prosecutorial discretion in pressing deportation cases, even if applying such discretion so broadly stretches the common exercise of the authority.

We could argue that we have 12 million illegal immigrants and all the issues inherent in their presence in large part because presidents of both parties have not, for a variety of reasons practical and political, fully enforced existing law.

While the president can within legal boundaries enforce laws as he sees fit, he cannot make or change those laws. That’s the job of Congress. And for the sake of this exercise, it matters not that Congress has failed to address these issues with changes to existing law despite nearly universal dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Last week’s ruling set no national precedent and changes nothing in practical terms. Few illegal immigrants outside those convicted of felonies will be repatriated. The millions who, armed with fake papers, hold jobs and live quietly will continue to do so in the shadows without legal status.

As we’ve said, the law should be changed to provide a pathway to permanent residency, but not citizenship, to deserving illegal immigrants living and working in the United States who meet strict requirements.

But whether we let illegal immigrants stay or force them to go, in the end it is most important that we do so under laws passed by Congress and enforced by the executive branch.