Washington: A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Monday that will temporarily prevent the Obama administration from moving forward with its executive actions on immigration while a lawsuit against the president works its way through the courts.
According to the Huffington Post the order, by Judge Andrew Hanen of the U.S. District Court in Brownsville, Texas, was an early stumble for the administration in what will likely be a long legal battle over whether President Barack Obama overstepped his constitutional authority with the wide-reaching executive actions on immigration he announced last November.”
Meanwhile, POLITICO is reporting that The White House said early Tuesday that the Justice Department will appeal the decision handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen.
Acting on a lawsuit brought by 26 states, Hanen ruled that Obama lacked authority to carry out much of the initiative he announced in November to allow up to five million more illegal immigrants to obtain work permits and reprieves from deportation.
Obama and his aides have argued that the new drive was legally justified as an exercise of prosecutorial discretion, since immigration authorities at the Department of Homeland Security lack the funding to deport more than a few percent of the 12 million people estimated to be in the U.S. illegally.
Hanen — an appointee of President George W. Bush — rejected that position
