Court suspends Obama plan to keep would-be deportees in US
A US federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked President Barack Obama’s plan to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation, an issue likely to be seized upon in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Ruling in favour of about two dozen US states opposed to the plan, US District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, said the administration had not com- plied with procedure. The White House said the department of justice would appeal against the decision, which was posted on the Los Angeles Times website.
Mr Obama announced a programme in November to lift the threat of deportation from about 4.7-million illegal immigrants. Using his executive authority, the move bypassed Congress, which has not passed immigration reforms despite several attempts.
The programme would allow 4.4-million people whose children are US citizens and legal permanent residents stay in the country temporarily.
Another 270,000 people would be able to stay under the expansion of a 2012 programme known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that offered deportation relief to people brought illegally to the US as children, allowing them work. That expansion was scheduled to begin today.
Led by Texas and its Republican governor, Greg Abbott, 26 states sued the administration, arguing that Mr Obama’s orders violated constitutional limits on his powers. They asked for an injunction to block the programmes from entering force while the legal process was playing out.
“Judge Hanen’s decision rightly stops the president’s overreach in its tracks,” said Mr Abbott. “The president’s attempt to by-pass the will of the American people was successfully checked today.”
Republicans had said Mr Obama’s plan amounted to an essential amnesty for people who entered the country illegally.
The White House said the US Supreme Court and Congress had made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing immigration laws, “which is exactly what the president did when he announced commonsense policies to help fix our broken immigration system.
The administration drew praise from immigrant advocates including Hispanics, a critical voting bloc that has largely thrown its support to Democrats.