The Justice Department has launched an appeal against the temporary injunction imposed by Texas District Circuit Judge Andrew Hanen on the executive action on immigration reform taken by President Obama. The document was filed on Monday in the New Orleans 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, with the hearing set for the 17th of this month.
The government will be doing its best to quash Hanen’s ruling, which was handed down in February and has halted the progress of immigration reform until now. In November the president elected to take executive action on immigration reform in the wake of Congress’s apparent disinterest in addressing the issue, expanding his 2012 deferred action scheme and introducing a similar plan for the parents of those who are permanent residents in the United States. This action would protect around five million undocumented immigrants from deportation from the country.
The appeal documented filed by the Justice Department argues that sole authority for the enforcing of deportation and other immigration laws lies with the federal government, which includes the delaying of cases relating to certain undocumented immigrants who do not constitute any kind of public threat.
26 states have taken the government to court over Obama’s executive action, claiming that irreversible harm would be done to their economies if it is allowed to go ahead; the Justice Department refutes this claim. If the request is dismissed by the appeals court, the fight could go all the way to the supreme court.