Court tosses Sheriff Joe’s deferred deportation lawsuit

“We are pleased that the D.C. Circuit did not allow Sheriff Arpaio’s lawsuit to stand in the way of common-sense measures to advance public safety and bring greater accountability to our immigration system,” the White House said. “The court correctly recognized that the Constitution does not permit federal courts to hear lawsuits that rest on baseless speculation.

“As the District Court properly observed, the deferred action programs that Sheriff Arpaio challenged represent the ‘valid exercise of prosecutorial discretion,'” the White House added. “We will continue to work toward resolving the legal challenges so that the administration can move forward with implementing all of the president’s common-sense immigration policies.”

Arpaio is the Arizona sheriff who gained national notoriety for his treatment of illegal immigrants when he, among other things, forced male inmates to wear pink underwear.

Last year, Obama issued an executive action to expand his efforts to ease deportation rules for illegal immigrants. He expanded a program aimed at deferring the deportation of younger illegal immigrants and letting them work, and created a new program for parents and legal guardians who don’t have legal status in the United States.

Arpaio, whose county encompasses Phoenix, challenged the policy but the appeals court ruled he lacked standing.

“We conclude that Sheriff Arpaio has failed to allege an injury that is both fairly traceable to the deferred action policies and redressable by enjoining them, as our standing precedents require,” the three-judge panel wrote in issuing its decision on Friday. “His allegations that the policies will cause more crime in Maricopa County are unduly speculative.”

Despite Arpaio’s loss, 26 states are also challenging Obama’s executive action, and that challenge has forced the administration to delay the implementation of that action for several months now.