With emergency motion, U.S. government asks for end to hold on immigration action

The U.S. government on Thursday asked an appeals court to lift a temporary hold on President Barack Obama's executive action to shield millions of immigrants from deportation, arguing it can't wait for the judge who blocked the action to make a ruling on a similar request ...

Justice Department attorneys said that if the injunction is not lifted, it should at least apply either only to Texas or to the 26 states that sued ...[CAIRCO Emphasis]

The injunction was intended to stall Obama's actions — which would spare from deportation as many as 5 million people who are in the U.S. illegally — while the lawsuit progresses through the courts. Many Republicans in Congress and states led by Republicans oppose the action, saying Obama overstepped his authority as president. Obama said he had to act because Congress has failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform ...

At next week's hearing, Hanen was set to have Justice Department attorneys explain why the federal government granted three-year deportation reprieves as well as work permits to 100,000 individuals before Hanen's Feb. 16 injunction. Attorneys had previously said federal officials wouldn't accept such requests until Feb. 18 ...

The other states seeking to block Obama's orders are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin ...

CAIRCO Note:

Colorado is not among the states suing.

Additional Suggested Reading: 

Judge: US government assisting child smuggling

A federal judge in South Texas said in a recent order that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is assisting in criminal conspiracies to smuggle children into the country when it helps reunite them with parents who are known to be in the U.S. illegally. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville made the comments in a 10-page order last Friday, at the conclusion of an immigrant smuggling case. Hanen expressed his frustration in having four cases in which a child who arrived in the U.S. illegally alone was reunited with a parent who was herself in the country illegally pass through his court in the past month ....