Wall Street Journal
By Byron Tau
February 20, 2015
The
Obama administration will ask a federal court to allow it to continue
implementing the president’s immigration plan, following a legal setback
this past week.
The
Department of Justice plans to file a request for an emergency stay of a
recent injunction, which temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland
Security’s rollout
of its immigration program, while it appeals that ruling. The program
would allow about four million people currently in the country illegally
to apply for deferred deportation and work authorizations.
Attorneys
for the Justice Department will make the request by Monday at the
latest, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Friday. The stay,
if granted, would allow
the administration to continue laying the groundwork for its Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program.
A
federal judge in Texas issued an order temporarily blocking a federal
immigration program that would have potentially shielded millions from
deportation. Why? WSJ’s
Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer.
“When
they have filed those documents, they and we will be in the position to
talk a little bit more about our legal strategy,” Mr. Earnest said.
Late
Monday, a federal district-court judge in Texas blocked the
administration from implementing the program in response to a lawsuit
from 26 states, which allege President
Barack Obama has overstepped his executive authority in creating the
program announced in November.
The
administration has said it is planning a separate appeal of the
decision to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The
fight could quickly move to
the U.S. Supreme Court. If a stay is granted, the federal government
would be able to immediately press ahead with its pending immigration
programs.
With
its programs currently on hold, “it’s not surprising that they are
seeking a stay,” said attorney David Leopold, past president of the
American Immigration Lawyers
Association.
Republicans
on Capitol Hill have argued that the president’s failure to enforce the
nation’s immigration laws is a breach of his duty and have threatened
to hold up funding
for the Department of Homeland Security to keep the immigration actions
from coming into effect. Funding for the department expires this coming
week.
Mr.
Obama said this past week that he was confident that the court system
would ultimately vindicate his actions. “I think the law is on our side
and history is on our
side,” Mr. Obama said in remarks at the White House.
Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott said the stay request should be denied. “A stay is
typically granted to have the status quo maintained,” he said. “Here the
status quo is the immigration
law passed by Congress, not the executive action by the president that
rewrites immigration law.”
Immigration
advocates cheered the administration’s decision to fight the ruling,
saying that illegal immigrants can’t wait for the court system to solve
the legal impasse.
“The
Department of Justice is standing on the right side of the law and on
the right side of history,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director
of the National Immigration
Law Center advocacy group. “We should not allow a flawed legal decision
to delay these changes any longer.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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