WASHINGTON (AP) — A short-handed and deeply divided Supreme Court deadlocked Thursday on President Barack Obama’s immigration plan to help millions living in the U.S. illegally, effectively killing the plan for the rest of his presidency and raising the stakes even further for the November elections.

The hotly debated direction of America’s national immigration policy as well as the balance of power on the high court now will be determined in large part by the presidential and congressional elections. Immigration and the court vacancy created by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in February already were featuring prominently in the campaign.

Scalia’s vote likely would have meant an outright ruling against Obama’s immigration expansion rather than the 4-4 tie, a much more significant defeat for the president and immigrant advocates.

In another major case affected by Scalia’s absence, the court delivered a surprisingly strong defense of affirmative action in higher education in a dispute over admissions policies at the University of Texas.

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in the 4-3 decision upheld the Texas admissions plan and reaffirmed that colleges can take account of race in admissions in pursuit of a diverse student body. Scalia, long an opponent of affirmative action, had suggested during arguments in December that some black students would benefit from being at a “slower-track school,” instead of Texas’ flagship campus in Austin.

Justice Elena Kagan did not take part in the case because she worked on it while at the Justice Department.

On immigration, the tie is not likely to lead to an increase in deportations since the president retains ample discretion to decide whom to deport. But the ruling stymies his effort to bring people “out from the shadows” by giving them the right to work legally in the U.S.

One of the Obama programs would have protected the parents of children who are in the country legally. The other was an expansion of a program that benefits people who were brought to the U.S. as children. Obama decided to move forward on his own after Republicans won control of the Senate in 2014 and the chances for an immigration overhaul, already remote, were further damaged.

Obama said Thursday’s impasse “takes us further from the country we aspire to be.”