A ruling by a Texas judge temporarily halting President Obama’s executive action sparing up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation effectively leaves those people “in the shadows,” argued the nation’s Homeland Security chief on Sunday.
“It is better to find ways to encourage [illegal immigrants] to come forward,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“They have to stay in the shadows,” he added. “That’s not a good thing.”
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen forced the administration to put the brakes on Obama’s executive action on immigration. The Justice Department is expected Monday to seek an emergency stay of the decision but faces an uphill battle to get the immigration program moving forward again.
The Obama administration would like the president’s latest deportation relief to proceed as scheduled, but the emergency order is viewed as a long shot. It could also take months for the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans to weigh a broader appeal.
The Supreme Court could ultimately decide the issue.
Johnson argued that Hanen’s ruling did not affect the administration’s use of so-called prosecutorial discretion to determine which illegal immigrants to deport. Obama has called on law enforcement agencies to target violent criminals rather than those merely crossing the border illegally.
