A federal judge in Texas on Monday granted a
temporary injunction halting President Obama’s executive-order driven amnesty
program.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen
ordered the government not to proceed with any portion of the Deferred Action
for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, DAPA.
In his order the federal judge said the court
found “that at least one plaintiff has satisfied all the necessary elements to
maintain a lawsuit and to obtain a temporary injunction.”
“The United States of America, its departments,
agencies, officers, agents and employees and Jeh Johnson, secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security; R. Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of United
States customs and Border Protection; Ronald D. Vitiello, deputy chief of
United States Border Patrol, United States Customs and Border Protection; Thomas
S. Winkowski, acting director of United States Immigration and Customs
Enforcement; and Leon Rodriguez, director of United States Citizenship and
Immigration Services are hereby enjoined from implementing any and all aspects
or phases of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent
Residents … ”
The outline of plans was “set out in the
Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson’s memorandum dated November 20,
2014.”
The injunction is until “a final resolution of
the merits of this case or until a further order of this court, the United
States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit or the United States Supreme
Court,” the judge ordered.
He cited the Obama administration’s failure to
comply with the Administrative Procedure Act.
Hanen also ordered that federal officials and
agencies are further enjoined from implementing “any and all aspects or phases
of the expansions (including any and all changes) to the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals.”
That was the program begun several years ago by
Obama.
The judge also explained the defendants will be
allowed to “reapproach this court for relief from this order, in the time
period between the date of this order and the trial on the merits, for good
cause, including if Congress passes legislation that authorizes DAPA or at such
a time as the defendants have complied with the requirements of the
Administrative Procedure Act.”
He scheduled a conference call for counsel
following a Feb. 27, 2015, deadline for a schedule for the case to be processed.
In Austin, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said,
“President Obama abdicated his responsibility to uphold the United States
Constitution when he attempted to circumvent the laws passed by Congress via
executive fiat, and Judge Hanen’s decision rightly stops the president’s
overreach in its tracks. We live in a nation governed by a system of checks and
balances, and the president’s attempt to by-pass the will of the American
people was successfully checked today. The district court’s ruling is very
clear – it prevents the president from implementing the policies in ‘any and
all aspects.’”
It’s one of two pending cases challenging
Obama’s amnesty. The other actually was developed first, and was thrown out at
the district court level. But it now is on a fast track before an appellate
court in Washington, D.C. It was filed by attorney Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, on behalf of Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa
County, Arizona. Klayman told WND he’s waiting now for the government to
respond to the appellate court.
“We want the D.C. court to enter a preliminary
injunction, stopping everything in its tracks,” he said. “We’re confident that
they will agree with us.” Obama’s amnesty plans are forecast to allow at least
another five million illegal aliens in the U.S. to be given a legal status,
where they could hold jobs, driver’s licenses – and critics say they would even
be allowed to vote.
WND
had reported earlier on the significance of the case, which was brought by 26 states against the
federal government. It was predicted to go far beyond amnesty and immigration.
The fight will determine
whether the United States can be run by a president and his decrees, or by a
chief elected official who enforces the laws Congress writes, according to Mark
Krikorian, chief of the Center
for Immigration Studies,
which watches the immigration situation.
“If I were a Republican politician, I wouldn’t
even be arguing this on the basis of immigration,” he told WND in an interview.
“I would be talking about this as just the latest and most egregious example of
a president’s rule by decree.”
He said the coming dispute, which very well may
extend into the 2016 presidential election or beyond, is going to decide “the
balance of powers, whether Congress actually makes law or is an advisory body
like the U.N. General Assembly, which is how Obama sees it.”
Obama already has challenged America’s laws a
multitude of times, simply issuing orders to make changes to the Obamacare law,
and on a variety of other issues, all without the benefit of a decision by
Congress, which originally wrote the laws.
The fight over amnesty is one of two focal
points – the other is Obamacare – of a letter-writing campaign to encourage GOP
members of the U.S. House to replace Speaker John Boehner.
The “Dump Boehner Now” campaign allows voters to reach every single Republican
House member with hard-copy letters asking them to reconsider their choice as
speaker. The letter says House members had the chance to stop Obamacare and
amnesty, but Boehner failed to take advantage. Joseph Farah, WND founder and
campaign organizer, set up the letters campaign. He said the opposition to
Boehner is based on the Obamacare and amnesty program that voters rejected in
the 2014 midterm elections.
The letter explains to members of the U.S. House
that two issues have “prompted Americans to turn in droves to the Republican
Party in November 2014 – Barack Obama’s blatantly unconstitutional executive
action to provide amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, and the deliberately
deceptive restructuring of America’s health-care system through Obamacare,
which threatens to unravel the greatest health delivery system in the world.”
Pointing out that Republicans before the
election “solemnly vowed to STOP this lame-duck president,” the letter states:
“Now you have the power, right and duty to stop him.
“But it won’t happen with John Boehner leading
you. You know this to be true. The trillion-dollar budget deal is just the
latest proof that Boehner is not capable of leading the House to victory during
this critical period.”
It’s because during the lame-duck Congress,
Boehner agreed to Obama’s plan to continue funding for Obamacare and amnesty
into 2015.
MSNBC
did a report only days ago
speculating on whether Hanen would halt the federal plan. MSNBC called Hanen “a
critic of the Obama administration’s immigration policies.”
Worried MSNBC, “If Hanen decides against the
Obama administration, he could block the implementation of the executive
measures, which are scheduled to kick in Feb. 18. If that were to happen, the
Department of Justice would almost certainly appeal the decision, which would
then go to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals – yet another conservative-leaning
court.”
The fact that more than half the states are
participating in the case has alarmed amnesty supporters, but they still hope
more and more illegals come out of the shadows and claim a place at the head of
the line of those awaiting official recognition in the U.S., or at least it
appears that way.
Karen Tumlin of the National Immigration Law
Center told MSNBC, “People have been waiting so long for a chance to come
forward and be able to work with authorization and not be looking over their
shoulder all day long. We’re really trying to send the message that this should
be business as usual.”
House Republicans, under Boehner, also have said
they are going to take court action, but haven’t yet.
http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/federal-judge-halts-obamas-amnesty-orders/
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