Court Refuses to Lift Block on Obama’s Immigration Plan
AUSTIN, Texas, April 8 (UPI) — A Texas federal judge refused to lift a temporary block on a White House immigration plan that would defer deportation for up to five million people in the country illegally.U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen rejected a request by the federal government that he stay his Feb. 16 decision, which granted a preliminary injunction blocking President Barack Obama‘s executive action. He said the government has not “shown any credible reason” why the order needed to be set into action immediately.
Texas and 25 other states, largely Republican, sued to stop Obama’s action, saying it was a constitutional overreach of power and would force them to spend more on law enforcement, health care and education.
“There is no pressing, emergent need for this program,” Hanen wrote in the order. “If there had been such a need,” the Department of Homeland Security “could have implemented the program at any time in the last five or ten years.”
In November, Obama signed the order that also granted benefits to some parents of legal residents and citizens. The move has become a flashpoint across the nation. The U.S. Department of Justice also appealed the matter to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments are set to begin April 17.
Tuesday, Hanen also said the administration misled him when it revealed last month the federal government had issued expanded work permits to some 100,000 illegal workers before the court blocked the program from beginning. He told the government to supply more information on the issue by April 21.
“Whether by ignorance, omission, purposeful misdirection, or because they were misled by their clients, the attorneys for the Government misrepresented the facts,” Hanen said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, praised Hanen’s ruling.
“The Obama Administration’s blatant misrepresentations to the court about its implementation of expanded work permits for illegal immigrants under the President’s lawless amnesty plan reflects a pattern of disrespect for the rule of law in America,” Paxton said. “As the judge has affirmed, once put into effect, President Obama’s executive amnesty program will be virtually impossible to reverse. Any premature implementation could have serious consequences, inflicting irreparable harm on our state, and this ruling is key in determining the extent to which the federal government did not present the full truth in this case.”
