Thread: US Seeks Stay of Ruling on Obama Immigration Action

US Seeks Stay of Ruling on Obama Immigration Action

HOUSTON — Feb 23, 2015, 11:53 AM ET
By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press

The U.S. government asked a federal judge Monday to lift his temporary hold on President Barack Obama's action to shield millions of immigrants from deportation.

The Justice Department's motion for a stay was filed with the court of U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas.

Last week, Hanen issued a preliminary injunction sought by 26 states suing to halt the immigration action by Obama, who wants to spare from deportation as many as 5 million people who are in the U.S. illegally. The states, led by Texas, have argued Obama's action is unconstitutional and would force increased state investment in law enforcement, health care and education.

The Justice Department is asking Hanen to put his ruling on hold while the federal government appeals the decision. If the stay were to be granted, Obama's immigration action would be allowed to go forward while the lawsuit proceeds through the courts.

Obama announced the executive action in November, saying lack of action by Congress forced him to make sweeping changes to immigration rules on his own. Republicans, who say Obama has overstepped his authority, are blocking funding for the Department of Homeland Securityunless Democrats agree to cancel Obama's order.

It is not unheard of for judges to delay rulings they have issued. Last year, a federal judge ruled Texas' same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional but put his decision on hold to allow the state to appeal. But legal experts say it is unlikely Hanen will put his ruling on hold, because he wrote in his 123-page court order that states would "suffer irreparable harm in this case" if Obama's actions on immigration were to proceed while the lawsuit is argued.

"Based on (Hanen's) language, it stands to reason that if you stay this order then those harms would start to accrue and that's the whole point of him enjoining the order in the first place," said Pratheepan Gulasekaram, a constitutional and immigration law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law in California.

The first of Obama's orders — to expand a program that protects young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. illegally as children — had been set to start taking effect Feb. 18. The other major part of Obama's order, which extends deportation protections to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the country for some years, was not expected to begin until May 19.

If Hanen denies the motion for a stay, the Justice Department was expected to take its request to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

But Lourdes Martinez, an attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco said the 5th Circuit is known to be fairly conservative, and is likely to also deny the request for a stay.

The request for a stay could ultimately end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The stay request is separate from an appeal the federal government is expected to file with the 5th Circuit over Hanen's ruling. That appeal, once filed, would likely take anywhere from four to nine months to be ruled upon, Gulasekaram said.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/u...ction-29163675

http://www.alipac.us/f12/white-house...-moves-317664/

The stay request is separate from an appeal the federal government is expected to file with the 5th Circuit over Hanen's ruling. That appeal, once filed, would likely take anywhere from four to nine months to be ruled upon, Gulasekaram said.

That's good on the time it would take for the appeal, and could be longer. The key is to prevent a "stay", so I hope the Fifth Circuit has enough sense not to grant the request and subject our nation to even more madness until the Congress completes its job and the courts have time to try the Texas case.

Obama Admin Proposes Compromise to Judge: Let Every State Except Texas Implement Exec Amnesty

by Tony Lee
23 Feb 2015

On Monday, the Justice Department asked a federal judge in Texas who issued an injunction last week against President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty to stay his injunction. The Obama administration also proposed that the judge issue a partial stay that would allow every state except for Texas to start implementing Obama’s executive amnesty.

The Justice Department gave U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen until Wednesday to decide on the matter. If Hanen does not act, the Justice Department will ask the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay.

The Justice Department argued that the Department of Homeland Security would “sustain irreparable harm” that would not be cured even if the Obama administration wins its appeal. The Obama administration alleged that a “stay pending appeal is necessary to ensure that the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS” or “Department”) is able to most effectively protect national security, public safety, and the integrity of the border.”

“Allowing the preliminary injunction to remain in place pending appeal would also harm the interests of the public and of third parties, who will be deprived of the significant law enforcement and humanitarian benefits of prompt implementation of the Guidance,” the Justice Department argued in its filing.

In issuing his injunction, Hanen determined that since Texas, which led the states in the lawsuit, “stands to suffer direct damage from the implementation” of Obama’s executive amnesty, all of the states that sued had standing. Specifically, Hanen noted that Texas would likely have to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants if the federal government started implementing Obama’s executive amnesty program.

The Justice Department asked Hanen to, “at the very least,” stay the injunction “so that it applies only to the implementation of the Guidance in Texas because “injunction purports to extend beyond implementation of the Guidance in Texas (the only State whose claims of harm the Court credited) to States the Court did not find to have established any injury, and even to States that have informed this Court that they desire and expect to benefit from implementation of the Deferred Action Guidance.”

When asked about the stay request, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said on Monday that the injunction against Obama’s executive amnesty “only makes it harder for the Department of Homeland Security to protect the American people and bring much-needed accountability to our nation’s immigration system.” He also noted that while a majority of states sued the Obama administration over his executive amnesty, 12 states and Washington, D.C. filed a brief in support of the administration’s executive amnesty program.

The expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) part of Obama’s executive amnesty was set to start last week, but the Obama administration announced after the injunction that it would comply with it and not accept any applications until the case is resolved. The Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) part of Obama’s executive amnesty for the illegal immigrant parents of U.S. citizens is set to go into effect in May.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security’s funding is set to expire on February 27, and Senate Democrats have united to filibuster the House’s spending bill that would fund all of the department except for Obama’s executive amnesty.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...-exec-amnesty/

Let it expire. Not a dime, Republicans, not a dime. Hold the line. Stand your ground. This is the only sure way to stop this madness once and for all. Now start a Congressional investigation of the issuance of over 7.4 million work authorizations to illegal aliens by USCIS. Shut this filthy agency down. Defund it, get rid of it, pass a 10 year moratorium on new immigration to give us time to sort out this mess, fix and reset it so this never ever happens again in the United States.

That judge should already find Obama in contempt of the court's order and ask the Texas law enforcement agencies to serve a warrant for Obama's arrest!

W