A Texas-based federal judge is set to hear arguments Wednesday in a case that could hand President Donald Trump a win in the ongoing legal battle over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and put the program’s fate in the hands of the Supreme Court.
District Judge Andrew Hanen will preside over a hearing in a lawsuit brought by seven states against the federal government over DACA, the Obama-era program that shields younger illegal immigrants from deportation.
Led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the lawsuit argues that DACA was an unconstitutional exercise of executive authority and asks for a nationwide injunction to halt the program.
If Hanen grants the injunction, it would set the stage for him to make a ruling on the program’s constitutionality.
Hanen, a former President George W. Bush appointee, is widely known as an immigration hawk, and many legal observers expect him to issue the injunction.- READ MORE
[divider][/divider]Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday unloaded on a federal judge who ordered the administration to reinstate the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy last week, saying the ruling was “improper” and vowing to keep up enforcement efforts against illegal immigration “aggressively.”
Sessions added that the judge had effectively “eviscerated” the legal authority of the executive branch and Congress, and strongly suggested the administration would appeal the ruling.
The Trump administration announced last year it would end DACA, which was implemented by the Obama administration using executive authority and protects illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation. However, the Republican-controlled Congress has failed to agree to a permanent statutory replacement for the program, despite several legislative attempts.
Federal judges have since barred the administration from ending the program entirely, saying it would be acceptable only to shut down future enrollment in DACA because existing applicants had already relied on it. But the ruling by U.S. District Judge John Bates went a step further by ordering authorities to essentially reinstate DACA in full.
In a statement, Sessions decried Bates’ ruling as one of a “number of decisions in which courts have improperly used judicial power to steer, enjoin, modify, and direct executive policy.” – READ MORE
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