Immigration Reform News 2015: Obama Vows to Fight Texas Court Ruling Blocking His Immigration Plans
A Texas federal judge issued a temporary court order blocking U.S. President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration Tuesday, prompting the President to vow he will fight the ruling and appeal the decision.
U.S. President Barack Obama employed his executive power to bypass Congress in his bid to pursue unilateral changes to reform country's immigration system, prompting District Judge Andrew Hanen to block the executive action -- a decision the President has vowed to oppose.
President Obama's executive action in late 2014 to safeguard an estimated five million undocumented immigrants from deportation defied a Congress ruling and prompted House Republicans to slam his actions as unconstitutional, placing the blame on Obama's move as playing a huge part of the immigration problem the country currently faces.
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President Obama says he will oppose the ruling, stating that "law and history are on his side." The White House issued a statement saying the executive action was well within his presidential authority.
"The district court's decision wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect," the statement read. "The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws — which is exactly what the President did when he announced commonsense policies to help fix our broken."
The Justice Department also expressed its intent to appeal Judge Hanen's decision.
Obama said he is confident that the Texas court's injunction over his executive order will be overruled, and he is prepared to continue with the implementation of that order to delay the deportation of millions of immigrants in the U.S.
Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security, upon whose department will ultimately fall the responsibility of implementing the President's executive orders, relayed his disagreement over the judge's decision, but said that his department would continue to comply with the Texas court injunction until the appeal process has run its course and a final ruling is issued.
Meanwhile, House conservatives are lobbying Congress to secure funding for the Department of Homeland Security to shut down the President's immigration orders.
