A district court judge in Texas issued an injunction on Monday ordering all federal agencies to halt their implementation of President Barack Obama’s execution action on immigration, dealing a major setback to pro-immigration advocates and bolstering the Republican efforts to reverse the president’s immigration policies.
The injunction originates from a lawsuit against the Obama administration filed by a group of 26 states after the president created an immigration program that would shield 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation and grant them work permits.
The decision did not rule that the president’s immigration program was illegal or unconstitutional, but sought to suspend the program while its legality is being tested in the courts. The judge said that granting virtual legal status to millions of people by giving them drivers’ licenses and work permits is “virtually irreversible.”
“The genie would be impossible to put back into the bottle,” the judge wrote, citing as an example a 1929 Supreme Court case where the sums paid to a tax later found unconstitutional could be not retrieved.
“The law is on our side and history is on our side,” Obama said Tuesday, and said that the White House would appeal the decision.
Republican Response
In Congress, Senate Democrats had repeatedly filibustered a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security because it contained amendments blocking Obama’s immigration programs. Some had hoped the injunction would spur House Republicans to pass a “clean” funding bill without the amendments, but Speaker John Boehner quashed those speculations on Tuesday.
“The president said 22 times he did not have the authority to take the very action on immigration he eventually did, so it is no surprise that at least one court has agreed,” Boehner said in a statement. “Hopefully, Senate Democrats who claim to oppose this executive overreach will now let the Senate begin debate on a bill to fund the Homeland Security department.”
