Federal court blocks Obama's immigration plan

Alan Gomez | USA TODAY

A federal appeals court refused Tuesday to allow President Obama's program to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation from going into effect.

The decision by a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans adds another delay for the undocumented immigrants who could have been protected under the president's order. A federal judge blocked Obama's plan in February, hours before many of them were to start applying for the new program.

Obama announced in 2012 that he would allow undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children to register with the federal government in exchange for two-year protections from deportation. In November, he said Congress had yet to fix the nation's broken immigration system, so he would move to protect even more undocumented immigrants.

Under his new program, more undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children would qualify for the deportation protections, as well as older undocumented immigrants who had U.S. citizen children.

The White House criticized the ruling, saying the two-judge majority misrepresented the facts and the law.

"As the powerful dissent from Judge [Stephen] Higginson recognizes, President Obama's immigration executive actions are fully consistent with the law," said White House spokesperson Brandi Hoffine. "The president's actions were designed to bring greater accountability to our broken immigration system, grow the economy, and keep our communities safe."

Hoffine said Obama's action are "squarely within the bounds of his authority" and are "the right thing to do" for the nation.

"Fifteen states and the District of Columbia, business leaders, local law enforcement and elected officials, educators, faith leaders, legal scholars, and others have all asked the courts to allow these actions to move forward, given the important economic and public safety benefits," she said.

Republican governors and members of Congress have opposed Obama's program from the start, arguing that he had overstepped his constitutional authority and was far exceeding the presidential right of "prosecutorial discretion" — the executive's ability to focus limited enforcement dollars on selected populations.

"The president said 22 times he did not have the authority to take the very action on immigration he eventually did, and the courts have agreed once again," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said.

The legal challenge started when 26 GOP governors filed a lawsuit against Obama, and in February, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, halted the program. The U.S Justice Department appealed that ruling and their request was denied by Tuesday's ruling. The Obama administration can now appeal to the full 5th Circuit Court of Appeals or directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ruling further infuriated immigration rights advocates who were hours away from filing applications in February before Hanen initially struck down Obama's program. Supporters of Obama's immigration policies called the appeals court ruling disappointing, but predicted they would ultimately prevail in the legal dispute that is likely to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"This decision is an outlier," said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. She called the lawsuit itself "a political anti-immigrant attack" pushed by Republican officials in the states against the Obama administration.

Debbie Smith, associate general counsel with Service Employees International Union, predicted that Obama's actions and the lawsuits will be election issues, and that "the immigration voters will remember" when they go to the polls next year.

Melissa Crow, legal director with the American Immigration Council, pointed to the dissent in the appeals court ruling, saying that the president and the executive branch have the authority to set priorities when it comes to enforcing the nation's immigration laws.

Tuesday's ruling is highly technical in any event.

Cornell University Law School professor Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration specialist, said the ruling only involved whether the program could proceed while it was challenged in the court. It did not, he said, deal with the merits of the case.

"The court of appeals merely held that the district court did not err when it held that Texas had standing to sue," Yale-Loehr said. "The true test will be on the merits of the case. That could be a few years down the road, after a trial."

Justice Department spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said the broader appeal of the case continues before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. He said the department believes the program is "consistent" with existing laws "as well as five decades of precedent by presidents of both parties."

Texas officials, however, were pleased by the ruling.

Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who pushed the lawsuit when he served as the state's attorney general, called the appeals court decision another sign that Obama overreached legally with his immigration actions.

"We live in a nation governed by a system of checks and balances, and the president's attempt to bypass the will of the American people was successfully checked again today," Abbott said.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, also a Republican, said "the appeals court Judges told the President to quit wasting time trying to circumvent the law."

He added: "Mr. President — please follow the law and reverse your illegal executive action now."