WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s administration yesterday delayed implementing his unilateral steps to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation after a judge blocked the actions at the urging of 26 states accusing Obama of exceeding his powers.
In a setback to the president, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, a city along the Texas border with Mexico, issued a temporary court order on Monday stopping Obama’s executive actions that bypassed a gridlocked Congress.
Hanen’s action left in disarray U.S. policy toward the roughly 11 million people in the country illegally.
Obama said he disagreed with the ruling and expected his administration to prevail once the issue made its way through the courts.
“The law is on our side and history is on our side,” Obama told reporters in the Oval Office.
The president said the administration will comply with the judge’s order and delay accepting applications from some of the illegal immigrants for deportation relief and work permits that had been set to begin on Wednesday.
“We will be prepared to implement this fully as soon as the legal issues get resolved,” Obama said. “The Department of Homeland Security will continue in the planning because we want to make sure as soon as these legal issues get resolved, which I anticipate they will in our favor, that we are ready to go.”
The Justice Department will appeal Hanen’s preliminary injunction to the majority conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Hanen has previously issued other opinions critical of the Obama administration’s enforcement of immigration laws.
Hanen’s preliminary injunction is not a ruling on the merits of the lawsuit filed by 26 states, led by Republican bastions such as Texas.
The judge issued his opinion amid a fight in the Republican-led U.S. Congress over legislation passed by the House of Representatives to allow funding for the Department of Homeland Security only if Obama’s immigration actions were nullified. The department is charged with securing U.S. borders, airports and coastal waters.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats showed signs of backing down, especially with the court order being a preliminary one.
The judge hemmed in Obama’s exertion of executive power on Nov. 20 that has drawn the ire of Republican elected officials who say he exceeded his constitutional authority.
“President Obama abdicated his responsibility to uphold the United States Constitution when he attempted to circumvent the laws passed by Congress via executive fiat, and Judge Hanen’s decision rightly stops the president’s overreach in its tracks,” said Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
DEPORTATION RELIEF
Obama’s executive orders would let up to 4.7 million illegal immigrants stay without threat of deportation. It was aimed mainly at helping 4.4 million people whose children are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.
About 270,000 people would be able to stay under the expansion of a 2012 program that offered deportation relief to people brought illegally to the United States as children, allowing them work. That expansion had been set to begin on Wednesday.
Immigration lawyers said many applicants for deportation relief under Obama’s order had already filed paperwork and the required $465 fee ahead of the beginning of the first stage of the executive action. They now must decide whether to withdraw their applications and be refunded, or continue in hopes the injunction is overturned.
Obama’s administration billed his moves as the biggest immigration policy shift since 1986 changes passed under President Ronald Reagan. Immigration policy is certain to become an important topic in the 2016 presidential campaign.
