5th Circuit Upholds Injunction Against Obama’s Executive Amnesty

U.S. President Barack Obama pauses during a ceremony honoring the National Medal of Technology and Innovation awardees at the White House in Washington November 20, 2014. Obama briefly touched upon his planned executive amnesty action on immigration, which was announced that same night. (Photo: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

DEVELOPING: A federal appeals court Tuesday ruled to uphold the injunction against President Obama’s executive amnesty handed down in February by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen. A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration’s argument and attempt to fend off the immigration lawsuit filed by 26 states.

“The genie would be impossible to put back into the bottle,” Judge Hanen wrote, flat-out stating that he agreed with the plaintiffs’ argument that the burden from legalizing millions of people is sufficient for standing, He said the order — if allowed to take effect — would be a “virtually irreversible” action.

In a 2-1 decision, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the president could not move forward with deferred deportation and additional benefits for at least 5 million illegal, undocumented immigrants. Justices Jerry Smith and Jennifer Walker Elrod denied the stay, stating in an opinion authored by Smith that the administration is unlikely to succeed on the merits of the case. Judge Stephen Higginson dissented.

“Because the government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its appeal of the injunction, we deny the motion for stay and the request to narrow the scope of the injunction,” the judges wrote.

As PPD has previously examined, particularly in the case of immigration, the results get worse when the question is asked more plainly. We have examined and explained the data on this topic in great detail in the past, but most voters still oppose President Obama’s executive order to exempt millions of illegal immigrants from deportation. In fact, according to Rasmussen tracking, more than ever say he doesn’t have the legal authority to take such action, which is precisely the question presently making its way through federal courts.

While 59 percent say Obama does not have that legal power to issue the order, which is up from 52 percent in February and a new high to date, 43 percent of voters want their state to sue the administration. That’s still more than the 39 percent who say they are opposed, but a significant 18 percent remain undecided.

Meanwhile, President Obama could either decide to ask the entire 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case again, or he could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in. There, Justice Antonin Scalia could either decide on the stay, himself, or move the case to the entire court.

But the underlaying issue remains. The Obama administration and the executive order are now 0-4 in the federal courts. The Justice Department has also asked the 5th Circuit to reverse Hanen’s overall ruling that sided with the states. That case will argued before the court in July, and a decision could take months.

The states suing Obama over his unilateral amnesty order now includes Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Prior to the ruling, and despite assurances by top administration officials to the contrary, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services began reallocating significant resources away from a computer system — known as the “Electronic Immigration System” — in order to send letters to all 9,000,000 green card holders urging them to naturalize prior to the 2016 election.

A newly obtained document (viewable on a previous article) written by Leon Rodriguez, the “director and co-chair of the Task Force on New Americans,” details an “integration plan that will advance our nation’s global competitiveness and ensure that the people who live in this country can fully participate in their communities.”

“The last time I checked, injunctions are not mere suggestions. They are not optional,” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. “This disregard for the court’s action is unacceptable and disturbing, especially after Secretary Johnson’s assurances that his agency would honor the injunction.”