A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that President Obama will not be able to implement his plan to allow millions of illegal immigrants to avoid deportation and obtain work permits in the United States while his executive action is being challenged in court.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Tuesday that Obama’s November, 2014 directive on immigration must remain on hold while it is appealed by Texas and 25 other states.
It’s a big victory for opponents of the program, who have labeled it “executive amnesty” because it was put in place by Obama over the objections of many, including most Republicans in Congress.
The decision means that a lower court ruling blocking millions of illegal immigrants from obtaining work permits and otherwise avoiding deportation will be allowed to stand, delaying the implementation until the court case is resolved.
Immigration proponents denounced the ruling.
“Immigrant communities have waited long enough,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.
“Today’s decision allows the lower court’s legally unsound decision blocking immigration relief to stay in place, and our economy and families will suffer the consequences,” she added. “We call upon the Justice Department to continue its efforts to get this injunction lifted by bringing the matter before the Supreme Court without delay.”
The court suggested in its ruling that the government’s case in support of the immigration executive action may be in trouble.
The Department of Justice, which is handling the case for the Obama administration, “is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its appeal of the injunction,” the justices wrote in the ruling.
President Obama signed the directive in November as a way to sidestep inaction by Congress on immigration reform.
The plan would allow approximately 5 million people now living here illegally to not only avoid deportation, but obtain work permits and some federal benefits.
The directive would exponentially expand an existing program that allows people who came here illegally as children to avoid deportation and obtain work permits. It also creates a new program known as “DAPA” that gives parents and guardians of legal residents an exemption from deportation, and the ability to work.
Opponents of Obama’s action say giving these illegal immigrants the right to work goes far beyond a decision to simply put them on a lower priority for deportation, and the Fifth Circuit opinion seemed to agree.
“DAPA amounts to the secretary’s discretion — at least temporarily — not to enforce the immigration laws as to a class of what he deems to be low-priority aliens,” the opinion said. “If that were all DAPA involved, we would have a different case.”
“DAPA’s version of deferred action, however, is more than nonenforcement: It is the affirmative act of conferring ‘lawful presence’ on a class of unlawfully present aliens,” it added. “Declining to prosecute does not convert an act deemed unlawful by Congress into a lawful one and confer eligibility for benefits based on that new classification.”
