WASHINGTON: The government will not ask the Supreme Court to review a judge’s decision that put on hold President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration, the Justice Department said.
The decision came one day after a federal appeals court panel refused to lift a Texas judge’s injunction that kept the sweeping immigration plan from taking effect.
U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen issued a preliminary injunction on Feb. 16 that halted Obama’s executive action, which could spare from deportation as many as 5 million people who are in the U.S. illegally. More than two dozen states sought the injunction, arguing that Obama’s executive action was unconstitutional.
The U.S. government on Feb. 23 asked Hanen to lift his injunction while it appealed his ruling against the executive action to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Hanen denied the request, and the U.S. government appealed. That appeal was denied.
Spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said the Justice Department would not seek a stay of the decision.
Instead, he said, the Justice Department will now focus on defending the merits of the executive action itself in an appeal that will be argued the week of July 6 before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The Department of Justice is committed to taking steps that will resolve the immigration litigation as quickly as possible in order to bring greater accountability to our immigration system by prioritizing deporting the worst offenders, not people who have long ties to the United States and who are raising American children,” Rodenbush said in a statement. “The department believes the best way to achieve this goal is to focus on the ongoing appeal on the merits of the preliminary injunction itself.”
The Obama administration plan has been denounced by Republicans as an example of executive overreach. Obama has argued that the action was necessary because of inaction by Congress.
The executive action announced in November remains on hold after the appeals court panel refused to allow it to take effect immediately.
In refusing to stay the Texas judge’s injunction, 5th Circuit judges Jerry Smith and Jennifer Walker Elrod said that the federal government lawyers are unlikely to succeed on the merits of the appeal. Judge Stephen Higginson disagreed in a lengthy dissent.
Immigrant advocates decried the continued roadblock. And, White House spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine said the two-judge majority in the ruling “chose to misinterpret the facts and the law.”
In denying a stay, Smith and Elrod rejected the government’s argument that it has such broad discretion to defer legal action against immigrants absent judicial review. The Obama policy, the ruling said, goes beyond simple non-enforcement. “It is the affirmative act of conferring `lawful presence’ on a class of unlawfully present aliens,” Smith wrote.
Higginson noted congressional inaction on the issue in his dissent and said the administration was acting within its authority.
Smith and Walker were nominated to the court by Republican presidents, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush; Higginson, by Obama.
“This decision is a victory for those committed to preserving the rule of law in America,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.
Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said the decision will result in confusion and fear in immigrant communities. But she predicted eventual victory in the courts.
The first of Obama’s orders – to expand a program that protects young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. illegally as children – was set to take effect Feb. 18. The other major part, extending deportation protections to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the country for some years, had been scheduled to begin May 19.
Hanen issued his injunction believing that neither action had taken effect. But the Justice Department later told Hanen that more than 108,000 people had already received three-year reprieves from deportation as well as work permits. Hanen said the federal government had been “misleading,” but he declined to sanction the government’s attorneys. Earlier this month, the U.S. government told Hanen it had mistakenly awarded three-year work permits to another 2,000 people.
Along with Texas, the states seeking to block Obama’s action are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.-AP
