Administration Asks Court to Lift Order Halting Immigration Programs

New York Times

By Julia Preston

March 12, 2015

Administration Asks Court to Lift Order Halting Immigration Programs

The Obama administration, fighting a lawsuit by 26 states against the president’s executive actions on immigration, asked a federal appeals court Thursday to lift an order by a judge in Texas that halted the programs.

Calling the legal reasoning behind the Feb. 16 injunction “unprecedented and wrong,” the administration filed for an emergency stay in the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. The ruling, by Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Federal District Court in Brownsville, Tex., forced the administration to cancel the start of programs to provide protection from deportation and work permits to more than four million immigrants in the country illegally.

If the appeals court grants the stay, the administration could move forward on the initiatives. But if it does not, the programs are likely to be significantly delayed.

President Obama was confident Tuesday that he would win the legal battle over immigration. “The law is on our side,” he said.

The administration asked the appeals court to decide within 14 days. It said that the court should lift the nationwide injunction entirely or limit it to Texas, the lead state in the lawsuit and the only one Judge Hanen specifically found would be harmed if the initiatives went forward.

As a third alternative, the government suggested excluding the states that did not participate in the lawsuit.

Also on Thursday, 14 states and the District of Columbia filed papers in the same court supporting the administration and asking to be exempt from the injunction.

“A single state cannot dictate national immigration policy, yet that is what the district court allowed here,” those states argued. Rather than suffering financial losses, as Texas said it would if the programs went forward, “states will benefit from these immigration reforms,” they said.

Among the states supporting the administration are Washington, which is leading the coalition; New York; and California.

Administration lawyers decided to seek a stay, which can be difficult to obtain, despite the legal risks. President Obama sees the programs as a major element in his legacy. He has said that he is confident that the actions are fully within his constitutional authority and that he will prevail.

One program, for immigrants who came to the United States when they were children, was supposed to start Feb. 18.

The attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, said in a statement that Mr. Obama’s broad use of executive power “sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the fabric of our republic.” He said the states allied with Texas would vigorously oppose an end to the injunction.

The administration on Thursday also asked the New Orleans court to give fast-track consideration to a full appeal of Judge Hanen’s injunction that it has filed.

Administration lawyers had to do some explaining to Judge Hanen about why they were going ahead to seek the stay.

On March 3, the government pointed out for the first time to the judge that one part of the initiatives Mr. Obama announced Nov. 20 had already gone into effect. Since November, officials have been giving three-year deferrals and work permits — instead of the original two-year documents — to young immigrants applying under a program Mr. Obama started in 2012. About 100,000 immigrants have received new deferrals or renewals for a three-year term, the government said.

Judge Hanen said explicitly that his injunction did not apply to the 2012 program. But lawyers for Texas said that the administration had misled the judge, and he set a hearing for March 19 to sort out the facts. But the administration decided not to wait until then to ask for the stay.

“The district court has taken the extraordinary step of allowing states to override the United States’ exercise of its enforcement discretion in immigration laws,” the government argued in its papers.

Texas and the other states contend, and Judge Hanen agreed, that they would incur huge costs if the president’s programs take effect, particularly because they would have to give driver’s licenses to millions of immigrants.

But the states supporting the administration said they expected to collect millions in new taxes paid by immigrants working legally. California said it anticipated an additional $904 million over the next five years.

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