Appeals court upholds block on deportation- deferral plan

NEW ORLEANS — President Barack Obama’s plan to protect from deportation an estimated 5 million people living in the United States illegally suffered another setback Monday in a ruling from a federal appeals court.

In a 2- 1 decision, the 5th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a Texas- based federal judge’s injunction blocking the immigration initiative.

The 70- page majority opinion by Judge Jerry Smith, joined by Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, rejected administration arguments that District Judge Andrew Hanen abused his discretion with a nationwide order and that the states lacked standing to challenge executive orders.

The judges acknowledged an argument that an adverse ruling would discourage potential beneficiaries of the plan from cooperating with authorities or paying taxes. “But those are burdens that Congress knowingly created, and it is not our place to secondguess those decisions,” Smith wrote.

Smith was appointed to the court by President Ronald Reagan; Walker was an appointee of President George W. Bush.

In a 53- page dissent, Judge Carolyn Dineen King said the administration was within the law, casting the decision to defer action on some deportations as “quintessential exercises of prosecutorial discretion.”

“Although there are approximately 11.3 million removable aliens in this country today, for the last several years Congress has provided the Department of Homeland Security with only enough resources to remove approximately 400,000 of those aliens per year,” wrote King, who was appointed to the court by President Jimmy Carter.

Republicans had criticized the plan as an executive overreach when Obama announced it in November 2014. Twenty- six states challenged the plan in court.

The administration said the executive branch was within its rights in deciding to defer deportation of some groups of migrants, including children brought to the U. S. illegally.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praised the ruling.

“President Obama should abandon his lawless executive amnesty program and start enforcing the law today,” Abbott said in a news release.

The administration could ask for a re- hearing by the full 5th Circuit, but the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy group, urged an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court.

“The most directly impacted are the 5 million U. S. citizen children whose parents would be eligible for temporary relief from deportation,” Executive Director Marielena Hincapie said in a news release.

Part of the initiative expanded a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protects young migrants from deportation if they were brought to the U. S. illegally as children. Another part, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, would extend deportation protections to parents of U. S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the country for years.