Days ago, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen denied a request made by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to lift his injunction, which placed a block on the immigration executive action (IEA). This means that, currently, the promised deportation relief offered by the IEA will remain unavailable until the courts resolve the issues regarding the constitutionality of the IEA.
Background on the Block on the Immigration Executive Action
While the controversy surrounding the IEA has been brewing since the action was imposed in November 2014, an injunction enacted by Judge Hanen, a federal judge in Texas, on February 16th has really turned up the heat on this issue. The reason is that:
- The injunction specifically put a block on the immigration executive action that would have granted about 5 million undocumented immigrants deportation relief.
- This injunction was handed down the day before USCIS was poised to start accepted applications for the extended DACA program (under the IEA).
Judge Hanen is at the forefront of an effort that includes 26 states attempting to permanently prevent the immigration executive action from going into effect.
As Judge Hanen noted in his original ruling, his block on the immigration executive action is necessary to prevent “irreparable harm” that could be caused by the IEA. He also explained that, without the block on the immigration executive action, “the genie would be impossible to put back into the bottle.”
Following this ruling, President Barack Obama stated:
The law is on our side, and history is on our side… this is not the first time where a lower court judge has blocked something or attempted to block something that ultimately is going to be lawful, and I’m confident that it is well within my authority.
Now that the DOJ’s attempts to get this block lifted have been denied by Judge Hanen, the case will proceed to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Whether the block on the immigration executive action will be lifted may be revealed soon – and as more unfolds on this situation, we’ll report the latest news on it here.
Los Angeles, California Immigration Lawyers at the Hanlon Law Group, P.C.
Do you need help with any immigration issues? If so, you can turn to the Los Angeles immigration attorneys at the Hanlon Law Group, P.C. For more than 15 years, our lawyers have been successfully representing clients in various types of immigration cases, including those that involve the most basic immigration applications to those associated with extremely complicated federal court litigation.
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