The White House Wednesday declined to say specifically how the administration would respond to a federal judge’s ruling temporarily halting President Obama’s executive action to spare up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday that the Justice Department would decide within the next few days how to pursue an appeal to the decision by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen putting the brakes on Obama’s unilateral action.
Obama’s top spokesman would not say whether the Justice Department would request an emergency stay of Hanen’s immigration ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans. A stay would allow Obama’ s deportation deferrals to move forward as judges review Hanen’s decision.
Typically, the circuit court would rule on such a request within a few weeks. However, the panel of judges, primarily made up of conservative appointees, could rush a decision since Obama’s plan was already slated to go into effect.
For his part, Earnest preferred to focus instead on funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is set to expire Feb. 28.
He said that withholding funding for the agency was not “fair to hundreds of thousands” of DHS employees who would not collect paychecks if lawmakers cannot reach a spending deal. However, most employees would still report to work — and likely receive back pay as soon as lawmakers reach an accord.
Earnest also punted on a question about whether the lack of a funding agreement would make the United States less safe, leaving it to DHS to describe how such a development would affect national security efforts.
