Immigration protesters rally outside the White House in November. A federal judge has halted the Obama administration's new immigration policies.
A federal judge’s decision to halt President Barack Obama’s plans to defer deportations for millions of immigrants came as a disappointment to activists working on the programs' implementation. But it was by no means a surprise.
Judge Andrew Hanen, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, has long been critical of Obama’s immigration policies. The Texas jurist ruled late Monday that plaintiffs in a case brought by 26 states could sue the Obama administration over the executive actions, blocking the programs from taking effect while the litigation proceeds.
Most frustrating to grass-roots community leaders and legal experts was the timing of Hanen’s decision. Released late Monday night as Washington faced a snowstorm, it came roughly a day before one part of Obama’s plan was set to begin.
“We knew that the likelihood of the judge doing what he did was very high – we expected this decision earlier. Unfortunately, he decided to wait until the last minute,” says Ben Monterroso, executive director of the advocacy organization Mi Familia Vota Education Fund. He calls the injunction “a piece of the plan that conservatives have, which is to confuse the community and disappoint them with the aims of people not participating.”
Since Obama announced in November that his administration would be granting relief from deportation to certain classes of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, immigrant advocacy groups have been working tirelessly to educate those eligible for the programs on how to apply.
Obama’s executive actions would eliminate the upper age limit for a 2012 program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which provided deportation relief for certain young people brought to the country illegally as minors. Additionally, immigrants in the country illegally who were parents of citizens or legal residents would also be eligible for relief from deportation under a program known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA. Applications for the DACA expansion were scheduled to begin Wednesday, while DAPA was expected to begin in May.
In a 123-page filing, Hanen said 2012’s DACA program could continue, while its expansion and the DAPA program would have to remain on hold while litigation continues.
"Once these services are provided, there will be no effective way of putting the toothpaste back in the tube should Plaintiffs ultimately prevail on the merits,” Hanen wrote Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who was previously the state’s attorney general, is leading the suit, joined by officials in 25 other states. They argue the president overstepped his executive authority with the measure. Meanwhile, 12 states and the District of Columbia have supported the White House’s actions in a court brief. Of the around 5 million immigrants possibly eligible for the programs, 46 percent live in states currently challenging them in court,according to the Pew Research Center.
Plans for press conferences and vigils are already underway throughout the country to protest Monday’s decision.
“Direct actions will be coming soon, especially here in Texas, and Greg Abbott will be held accountable for it,” says Joaquin Guerra, political director of the Texas Organizing Project. “You have the Republican Party in a state like Texas that does everything in its power to say that they’re welcoming and friendly to Latinos, and then they sue to stop families from being ripped apart from each other.”
The White House defended the constitutionality of the executive actions in a statement released early Tuesday morning by press secretary Josh Earnest, who said Hanen’s injunction “wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect.” He also said the Department of Justice indicated it would appeal the decision, which is expected to take a matter of days or weeks.
However, if appealed, the question would head next to the notoriously conservative 5th U.S. Circuit of Court of Appeals, meaning action by the Supreme Court might be necessary to stay Hanen’s decision – though whether the justices would be willing to intervene is up for debate.
“It is a decision by one federal district court judge. I’ve always expected that this is a matter to be decided by a higher court,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said at a National Press Club lunch Tuesday.
In the meantime, a priority for pro-immigrant groups will be educating immigrants as to what the decision does and does not mean for them, with concerns that Tuesday’s headlines might have a chilling effect on a community already hesitant to come out of the shadows.
“Even with [the 2012 DACA program], we saw that at least a percentage of the eligible population didn’t come forward because of fears, and in this case I think we are seeing even more hyperbole and rhetoric,” says Patrick Taurel, a legal fellow at the American Immigration Council.
A little over half of the 1.2 million immigrants immediately eligible for the 2012 DACA program applied in the initiative's first two years, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
“We really want to emphasize for the community that this is one bump in the road in a long sort of journey that this case will take,” says Melissa Keaney, a staff attorney for the National Immigration Law Center. “That shouldn’t change the calculation that folks are making about whether or not they’re eligible and whether or not they’re willing to come forward and apply to the program when it is able to go into effect.”
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