District Court Grants Preliminary Injunction in Lawsuit Immigration Reform

Feb 27, 2015 | Blog
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A federal district court in Texas granted a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking the implementation of DAPA and the expansion of DACA in a lawsuit brought by 26 states. (State of Texas, et al v. U.S.A, 2/16/15)

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”) issued a statement regarding the decision by Texas federal judge Andrew Hanen to grant the request for a temporary injunction against the implementation of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (“DAPA”) and the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) initiative stating in summary:

“Previous statements by Judge Hanen made it clear that he was pre-disposed against favorable exercises of prosecutorial discretion in the immigration context. Today he affirmed that pre-disposition by temporarily enjoining decision-making in the expansion of DACA and the implementation of DAPA.

“Thus, there is nothing surprising in the fact of the injunction. What is surprising, given this judge, is the narrowness of the ruling. His injunction is not based on constitutional grounds; it is based on procedure, finding flaws under the Administrative Procedure Act. It is almost as if he was desperate for a way to block these initiatives and grasped any straw he could.”

“AILA fully expects the federal government to immediately appeal this ruling and to request a stay of the injunction throughout the appeal process so that the initiatives aren’t stalled. AILA is confident the federal government will ultimately prevail and that DAPA and expanded DACA will be fully implemented….”

Furthermore, here is what we know:

On February 17th, 2015 the White House issued a statement on the district court preliminary injunction on State of Texas  v. U.S.A. challenging expanded DACA and DAPA, stating that the “decision wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect and the Department of Justice has indicated that it will appeal that decision.”

The federal government filed an emergency expedited motion on February 23, 2015 on the preliminary injunction entered on 2/16/15 concerning expanded DACA and DAPA, requesting that the court stay, pending appeal, its 2/16/15 Order, or in the alternative, stay its Order beyond application in Texas.

Politico reports that the federal judge in Texas who blocked President Barack Obama’s latest executive actions on immigration signaled Tuesday that he isn’t inclined to rush a decision on the Obama Administration’s request to lift the injunction he imposed last week. The Justice Department warned in its stay application filed on Monday that if the judge did not act on the stay earlier this week, it would move to a higher court.

We will continue to update on this topic as we receive further information. For questions regarding the ways that the President’s Executive Action may be beneficial to your business or your staff, please feel free to contact Sevil Ozisik.