Appeals court rules against Obama

[kscarbel2]

Associated Press / November 9, 2015

President Barack Obama's plan to protect from deportation an estimated 5 million foreigners living in the United States illegally suffered another setback Monday in a ruling from a New Orleans-based federal appeals court.

In a 2-1 decision, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Texas-based federal judge's injunction blocking the administration's immigration initiative.

Republicans had criticized the plan as an illegal executive overreach when Obama announced it last November. Twenty-six states challenged the plan in court.

The administration argued that the executive branch was within its rights in deciding to defer deportation of selected groups of immigrants, including children who were brought to the U.S. illegally.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praised the ruling.

"President Obama should abandon his lawless executive amnesty program and start enforcing the law today," Abbott said in a news release.

The ruling further dims prospects of implementation of the executive action before Obama leaves office in 2017. Appeals over the injunction could take months and, depending on how the case unfolds, it could go back to the Texas federal court for more proceedings.

The administration could ask for a re-hearing by the full 5th Circuit but the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy group for illegal immigrants, urged an immediate Supreme Court appeal.

"The most directly impacted are the 5 million U.S. citizen children whose parents would be eligible for temporary relief from deportation," says Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.

Part of the initiative included expansion of a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, protecting young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

The other major part, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, would extend deportation protections to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the country [illegally] for years.

The 70-page majority opinion by Judge Jerry Smith, joined by Jennifer Walker Elrod, rejected administration arguments that the district judge abused his discretion with a nationwide order and that the states lacked standing to challenge Obama's executive orders.

They acknowledged an argument that an adverse ruling would discourage potential beneficiaries of the plan from cooperating with law enforcement authorities or paying taxes. "But those are burdens that Congress knowingly created, and it is not our place to second-guess those decisions," Smith wrote.

In a 53-page dissent, Judge Carolyn Dineen King said the administration was within the law, casting the decision to defer action on some deportations as "quintessential exercises of prosecutorial discretion," and noting that the Department of Homeland Security has limited resources.

"Although there are approximately 11.3 million removable [illegal] aliens in this country today, for the last several years Congress has provided the Department of Homeland Security with only enough resources to remove approximately 400,000 of those aliens per year," King wrote.

[kscarbel2]

"The most directly impacted are the 5 million U.S. citizen children whose parents would be eligible for temporary relief from deportation," Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy group for illegal immigrants.

Ms. Hincapie apparently has an inability to grasp U.S. law.

In my opinion, any children born to illegal aliens in the United States should not be eligible to receive U.S. citizenship due their criminal parent’s illegal status. Given that the parents shouldn’t even be in the United States illegally, the birth on U.S. soil was inherently illegal, and disqualified for citizenship.

[41chevy]

Won't happen I'm afraid, since A) the administration ignores laws and ruling they don't like or agree with and how can they let all those valuable votes get eliminated?

I personally would like to see a limit on the "I've got a pen" edicts that only benefit an agenda.

[Gmerrill0516]

Laws clearly only apply to some of us and not to others. Some of us deserve things, others have to earn them. Some laws need to be enforced, others are mean spirited and should not be. The break down of the rule of law is one of the major flaws in the foundation of society in the USA. Think back to when the law was "the law". It applied to everyone without exception and if it was on the books, it was to be enforced...and it was. At the risk of sounding old, kids even have this mindset now, even the good ones. We have started to judge the importance of a law based upon feelings and other interpretations rather than on the merit of the law, what it says and what it mandates.

Remember Rome! We will be North Mexico or Southern Canada in 50 years or less...maybe the USA will still exist, but it will be a shadow of its former self, with a bankrupt economy, a welfare state, business and those of us who work will be taxed into oblivion and there will be no incentive to do anything properly with corruption a way of life in all levels of society, business, and health care. Think USSR circa 1960's. Happy times.

[eddeere]

I do not expect anything to change. The administration is not bound by the laws. They do as they wish and have gotten by with it. I wish someone could hold these people accountable.

[Outbehindthebarn]

I never heard of "Executive Action" until this prick showed up.

[41chevy]

I never heard of "Executive Action" until this prick showed up.

All presidents used it going back to George Washington and Calvin Coolidge, Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt were in the THOUSANDS of Executive Orders issued, Obamama is only 216 but most are for his personal interests. Remember he said "Congress moves to slow and I have a pen and phone" to circumvent due process. This is as close to an Imperial Presidency as we have ever got. . . even blows by Nixon by miles

[ranchhopper]

Boy Ill bet there was some major league pouting going on at the white house after that.