14 states just asked a court to let Obama implement his immigration plan. Do you live

14 states just asked a court to let Obama implement his immigration plan. Do you live in one of them?

Mar. 13, 2015 10:05am
Pete Kasperowicz

The attorneys general from 14 states and the District of Columbia has asked a federal appeals court to remove the injunction that has so far stopped President Barack Obama from implementing key parts of his immigration plan.

A federal court in Texas imposed the injunction last month, a decision aimed at allowing the court to hear a legal challenge to Obama’s plan that was brought by the state of Texas and 25 others states. That decision forced Obama to delay his plan to protect millions of illegal immigrants, and the administration has challenged the injunction at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

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California Attorney General Kamala Harris and more than a dozen other Democratic AGs asked a federal appeals court to allow President Obama to implement his immigration plan. Image: AP Photo/Richard Vogel

On Thursday, attorneys general from states that are more open to Obama’s plan asked the appeals court to lift the injunction, in an 18-page brief. Those attorneys general are from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — the attorney general from the District of Columbia also signed the court filing.

Most of those states have Democratic governors, although Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Mexico have Republican governors. However, all the attorneys general from those states and Washington, D.C., are Democrats.
“President Obama has proposed common sense actions that will help fix our broken immigration system and enhance California’s economy and public safety,” said California Attorney General Kamala Harris. “With over one million hard-working Californians eligible for deferred action, our state has a major stake in the successful implementation of the President’s immigration actions.”

“I wholeheartedly join my colleagues in urging the Fifth Circuit to issue a stay so that California families can immediately begin to come out from under the shadows and enjoy the American Dream,” she said.

The appeals court decision is the critical step in the fight against Obama’s immigration plan. If the injunction is lifted, the Department of Homeland Security would immediately start processing requests for legal protection for younger illegal immigrants and the illegal parents of U.S. residents to stay in the United States and work.

Allowing the injunction to stay, on the other hand, would give Republicans a major victory, and would likely delay implementation of the main parts of Obama’s plan until the issue winds its way through the courts.

A middle ground decision could see the appeals court apply the injunction only to Texas, which is where the decision was made, instead of country-wide. The attorneys general asked for this narrow injunction if it could not decide to get rid of the injunction altogether.

http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/03/13/14-states-just-asked-a-court-to-let-obama-implement-his-immigration-plan-do-you-live-in-one-of-them/