{A federal judge in Texas has ordered a halt, at least temporarily, to President Obama\u2019s executive actions on immigration, siding with Texas and 25 other states that filed a lawsuit opposing the initiatives.}<\/p>\n
In an order filed on Monday, the judge, Andrew S. Hanen of Federal District Court in Brownsville, prohibited the Obama administration from carrying out programs the president announced in November that would offer protection from deportation and work permits to as many as five million undocumented immigrants. The first of those programs was scheduled to start receiving applications on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Judge Hanen, an outspoken critic of the administration on immigration policy, found that the states had satisfied the minimum legal requirements to bring their lawsuit. He said the Obama administration had failed to comply with basic administrative procedures for putting such a sweeping program into effect.<\/p>\n
The administration argued that Mr. Obama was well within long-established federal authority for a president to decide how to enforce the immigration laws. But Texas and the other states said the executive measures were an egregious case of government by fiat that would impose huge new costs on their budgets.<\/p>\n
Mr. Obama said he was using executive powers to focus enforcement agents on deporting serious criminals and those posing threats to national security. Three-year deportation deferrals and work permits were offered for undocumented immigrants who have not committed serious crimes, have been here at least five years and have children who are American citizens or legal residents.<\/p>\n
As part of the package, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson also established new priorities, instructing enforcement agents to concentrate on deporting the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists and gang members, as well as migrants caught crossing the border illegally.<\/p>\n
Since the lawsuit was filed on Dec. 3, the stark divisions over Mr. Obama\u2019s sweeping actions have played out in filings in the case. Three senators and 65 House members, all Republicans, signed a legal brief opposing the president that was filed by the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal action organization.<\/p>\n
Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona, who is known for crackdowns on people living in the country illegally, also filed a brief supporting the states\u2019 lawsuit. In December, a federal judge in Washington dismissed a separate lawsuit by Sheriff Arpaio seeking to stop the president\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n
On the other side, Washington and 11 other states as well as the District of Columbia weighed in supporting Mr. Obama, arguing that they would benefit from the increased wages and taxes that would result if illegal immigrant workers came out of the underground. The mayors of 33 cities, including New York and Los Angeles, and the Conference of Mayors also supported Mr. Obama.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strong entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants to the United States has significantly boosted local economies and labor markets,\u201d the mayors wrote in their filing.
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Some legal scholars said any order by Judge Hanen to halt the president\u2019s actions would be quickly suspended by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.<\/p>\n
\u201cFederal supremacy with respect to immigration matters makes the states a kind of interloper in disputes between the president and Congress,\u201d said Laurence H. Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard. \u201cThey don\u2019t have any right of their own.\u201d<\/p>\n
The states\u2019 lawsuit quotes Mr. Obama as saying many times in recent years that he did not have authority to take actions as broad as those he ultimately took. Mr. Tribe said that argument was not likely to pass muster with appeals court judges.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of that is interesting political rhetoric,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it has nothing to do with whether the states have standing and nothing to do with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Hanen, who was appointed in 2002 by President George W. Bush, has excoriated the Obama administration\u2019s immigration policies in several unusually outspoken rulings. The president’s supporters have said that Texas officials, who are leading the states\u2019 lawsuit, were venue shopping when they chose to file in Brownsville.<\/p>\n
But at a hearing on Jan. 15, Judge Hanen said Brownsville, which sits on the border with Mexico, was an appropriate venue for the suit because its residents see the impact of immigration every day. \u201cTalking to anyone in Brownsville about immigration is like talking to Noah about the flood,\u201d Judge Hanen said.<\/p>\n
In a lengthy and colorful opinion last August, Judge Hanen departed from the issue at hand to accuse the Obama administration of adopting a deportation policy that \u201cendangers America\u201d and was \u201can open invitation to the most dangerous criminals in society.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case involved a Salvadoran immigrant with a long criminal record whom Judge Hanen had earlier sent to prison for five years. Instead of deporting the man after he served his sentence, an immigration judge in Los Angeles ordered him released, a decision Judge Hanen found \u201cincredible.\u201d Citing no specific evidence, he surmised that the administration had adopted a broader policy of releasing such criminals.<\/p>\n
While acknowledging that he had no jurisdiction to alter policy, Judge Hanen said he relied on his \u201cfirsthand, in-the-trenches knowledge of the border situation\u201d and \u201cat least a measurable level of common sense\u201d to reach his conclusions about the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe court has never been opposed to accommodating those who come to this country yearning to be free, but this current policy only restricts the freedom of those who deserve it most while giving complete freedom to criminals who deserve it least,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
The mayor of Brownsville, Tony Martinez, was among those who filed court papers supporting Mr. Obama\u2019s actions. \u201cWe see a tremendous value in families staying together and being together,\u201d Mr. Martinez said on a conference call on Tuesday organized by the White House. \u201cEventually we hope to get all these folks out of the shadows,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
{{The New York Times}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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