カテゴリーアーカイブ: Immigration

Obama Immigration Appeal Hinges on Arcane Rules for Rule-Making

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(Bloomberg) — The Obama administration’s bid to set aside a Texas judge’s order that derailed its immigration reform plans may pivot on a narrow finding that policy makers failed to follow federal rules for drawing up new guidelines.

At the request of 26 states, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, whose courthouse sits in the Texas border town of Brownsville, blocked the new program late Monday. It would have let as many as 5 million people who illegally entered the country avoid deportation.

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The U.S. Justice Department may decide as early as Friday to ask that the ruling be put on hold as it appeals it, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.

The states sued the federal government last year after Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson issued a series of memoranda to those agencies responsible for immigration matters. The memos established new deferred-action policies enabling some undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S. and apply for work permits and some government benefits.

The suing states accused the Obama administration of overstepping its constitutional authority and of sidestepping the normal process for rule-making.

Hanen, in his 123-page decision, said he didn’t need to reach the constitutional issue yet. He addressed the more limited question of whether the policy was invalid because the DHS hadn’t made its new rules public, such as by publishing them in the Federal Register, and hadn’t invited public comment before they took effect.

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Survive Appeal?

The judge’s chosen method means his order could survive an initial appeal, said David Weber, an immigration law professor at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

“The issue that he chose to rule on is a procedural rule, rather than a substantive rule,” Weber said. Hanen, nominated by President George W. Bush in 2002, didn’t “get into the issue of whether the executive branch has the power” to do what it did, focusing instead on the means it used.

Justice Department attorneys told Hanen the administration didn’t need to follow the federal Administrative Procedure Act on rule-making because its policy shift wasn’t a formal rule. The change was merely “guidance” that immigration agents were to follow at their discretion, they said.

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What counts as mere guidance and what’s rule-making is “a close question,” said Michael Dorf, a constitutional law professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

“The law in this area is not very well developed,” Weber, the Creighton professor, said. “There isn’t a lot of clear guidance on what the distinction is.”

Strong Footing

Celia Munoz, the White House Domestic Policy Council director, told reporters during a Feb. 17 conference call after the ruling: “We believe we’re on very strong legal footing.”

The immigration policy is “fully consistent with the executive branch’s authority under the law,” Munoz said, adding that the administration expects to prevail on appeal.

While Hanen didn’t rule on the underlying merits of the states’ complaint, he telegraphed his views on them, Cornell’s Dorf said.

Hanen discussed at length what he called the administration’s “complete abdication” in the enforcement of U.S. immigration policy as well as actions he said Homeland Security’s Johnson took in contravention of congressional intent.

“The secretary is not just rewriting the laws; he is creating them from scratch,” Hanen wrote.

The judge said DHS’s decision to disregard entire sections of immigration law gave him the opportunity to judicially review the agency’s actions. Under other circumstances, he might not have that right, he said.

Independent Research

He also made references in his ruling to recent immigration statistics and human traffickers who kidnapped a local college student and forced her to drive smuggled immigrants to an inland location, information that wasn’t put before him by the parties.

Hanen’s independent research “undermines the credibility of his opinion,” Dorf said, as does his use of “code words that make it look like an anti-administration rant. That sort of rhetoric undermines his credibility” and improves the administration’s chances on appeal.

The judge has drawn attention for a previous ruling blasting the Obama administration’s immigration policy for “turning a blind eye to criminal conduct.” The judge in 2013 accused the Department of Homeland Security of complicity in cross-border child smuggling.

Texas chose to file the lawsuit in the state’s southernmost point, where it said in its complaint Brownsville has a front-row seat at the “humanitarian crisis” that has swept as much as 1,000 undocumented immigrants a day, many of them unaccompanied children, across the border in the past year.

Two Judges

The federal courthouse there has just two judges, Hanen and Hilda Tagle, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton. They evenly split all incoming civil cases, according to the court’s website and a courthouse clerk who confirmed the case-assignment protocol but declined to give her name.

Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, told reporters the administration wasn’t surprised by Hanen’s injunction.

“This is something we were prepared for,” he said during a Feb. 17 press call with reporters. “Those who are veteran court watchers were not surprised by this particular judge’s ruling based on his previous statements on this issue.”

While the administration pursues a suspension and ultimate reversal of Hanen’s ruling, Dorf said the government should proceed as quickly as possible.

“It’s less important what the appeals courts will do than how long it takes them to do it,” he said. That way, if the New Orleans-based appellate court refuses to overturn Hanen, the administration can turn to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it could request emergency handling of the case.

“They need to get this stay lifted quickly,” Dorf said of the Obama administration. Otherwise, protracted appeals could push the issue into next year, when “we’re right in the middle of the presidential elections.”

The case is State of Texas v. U.S., 14-cv-00254, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Brownsville).

To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Harris in federal court in Chicago at aharris16@bloomberg.net; Laurel Brubaker Calkins in Houston at laurel@calkins.us.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net Patrick Oster

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Fix this hot, ugly immigration mess

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(CNN)America’s immigration issue needs a comprehensive and permanent bipartisan legislative solution.

An executive action is a temporary and limited fix. On the night President Obama announced his most recent immigration executive action, I called it a Band-Aid.

Today, we found out, the Band-Aid may not stick.

In a case brought by 26 states, a federal judge in Texas issued an injunction halting implementation of the President’s executive actions: the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (or DAPA) — which would have granted work permits and extended deferred deportation status and expanded the the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children.

What the immigration ruling means

    This is just the beginning of the legal wrangling over this. At issue is whether President Obama exceeded his powers and tried to legislate. This is Congress’ job, and the problem, to state the obvious, is that Congress is not doing it. For decades, Congress has been talking about fixing the broken immigration system. This has gone nowhere.

    TX judge blocks Obama's immigration actionTX judge blocks Obama's immigration action

    On the other side, you have mounting pressure on President Obama from an increasingly frustrated Latino community and Democratic base. He made pie-in-the-sky campaign promises offering immigration reform in his first year in office. In his first two years, he had a Democratic Senate and Democratic House. He had the chance to act. Instead, he sat on his hands as the problem continued to fester.

    What’s worse, as part of the fight over the immigration executive actions, the Congress is now playing a game of chicken with the Department of Homeland Security’s appropriations bill, set to expire in a few days, insisting on amendments to the bill that would block Obama’s immigration actions.

    Hill GOP emboldened after immigration ruling

    Lastly, add to this equation the reality of the millions of confused undocumented families whose lives and livelihoods are in the balance, and who have no idea how this is going to end. The truth is, none of us do.

    GOP stuck on immigration GOP stuck on immigration

    Frankly, the entire thing is a hot, ugly, mess. The President should use this judge’s injunction as an opportunity to invite and pressure Congress to work with him on a bipartisan solution. Halt the implementation of the immigration program. Halt the legal maneuvering. Halt the irresponsible posturing on funding DHS. Set a deadline to pass legislation.

    Fix the immigration problem comprehensively, permanently and fairly.

    Read CNNOpinion’s new Flipboard magazine

    Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion

    Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion

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Obama’s Immigration Setback Is a Gift to GOP

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President Obama has just suffered a double hit. First, his executive action granting temporary amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants was put on ice by a judge in Texas. Second, Republicans who opposed the measure no longer look so unreasonable. 

Late Monday US District Judge Andrew Hanen blocked Mr. Obama’s executive action on immigration, which was due to take effect today. The judge did not rule on the merits of the case. Rather, he determined that the state of Texas (and some 24 other states) has standing to sue the federal government over the so-called “amnesty” measure, since it “stands to suffer direct damages from the implementation of DAPA”, as the deferred action program is called. 

Related: Public to Blame Republicans If DHS Shuts Down 

Score one for the American people. Score two for the GOP, which may have been rescued from once again infuriating voters.

President Obama’s decision to unilaterally overturn U.S. immigration policies and allow up to 4.7 million undocumented immigrants to stay in the country has been unpopular from the start; even the Latino community has been divided on the executive action. While a majority of Americans endorse a pathway to legal status for persons who jump various hurdles, such as passing a background security check, most dislike the president’s go-it-alone approach.

In December, a Bloomberg poll found that 56 percent of Americans disapproved of the president’s executive action, including 57 percent of Independents. An earlier NBC/WSJ poll found that only 43 percent of Hispanics supported the president’s action. The outcome of that survey was so unnerving to Obama supporters that NBC News’ Mark Murray suggested it shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Perhaps if Obama had taken the country’s temperature on immigration more seriously, he would have concluded that the outcome of his earlier mini-Dreamers provision, enacted to win Hispanic support for his 2012 reelection, had soured the nation on further opening our immigration door. The flood of young people from Central America, which made a mockery of our border “security,” horrified the nation.

Related: GOP Could Give Obama’s Immigration Plan a Free Pass

That the president’s DACA program had encouraged the tidal wave of youngsters was indisputable. (Even Joe Biden inadvertently acknowledged the cause-and-effect.) It was but a short leap to recognize that granting legal status to millions more would invite an even bigger wave of people trying to take advantage of what was advertised as amnesty south of the border.  

Republicans in Congress, cognizant of the damage done to the GOP brand by their 2013 shut-down of the federal government, struggled to find a path to overturning Obama’s executive action, which many consider unconstitutional. They finally chose to pass an Omnibus spending bill that kept the federal government afloat, but carved out spending for Homeland Security, which is charged with carrying out Obama’s executive order. More recently, the House passed a spending bill for DHS which excluded funds related to the program.  Senate Democrats have refused to take up the DHS bill and the agency will run out of money at the end of the month.

At a moment when the country is on high alert for terrorist threats, crippling DHS (as the White House would characterize it) would seem a foolhardy approach to challenging Obama’s immigration measure. CNN/ORC polling has shown that if indeed DHS were “shut down,” meaning that the large majority of workers would still be on the job but without a paycheck, 53 percent of the country would blame the GOP, while only 30 percent would hold Obama accountable.  

How this spending squabble will be impacted by the new decision allowing the lawsuit by Texas to proceed is unclear. The White House has indicated the Justice Department will appeal; it appears likely that the Fifth Circuit Court will hear the case quite soon.  With luck, the temporary injunction will give the GOP time to pass a funding measure for DHS in the few days left. Or, Congress can pass another continuing resolution, to fund DHS pending the outcome of the lawsuits.  Since the GOP was attempting to delay implementation of the amnesty, they may conclude that the court’s decision has relieved them of that burden at least in the short run. 

Related: Factbox—What Happens If Homeland Security Funding Lapses

That would be a blessing, as a prolonged skirmish over DHS funding, carried on against a backdrop of ISIS executions and threats, will not sit well with voters. 

At the same time, Republicans need to argue this case in the court of public opinion – something they have not done well in prior battles with President Obama. They should remind the public that “prosecutorial discretion,” which the president has unquestionably, has never applied to millions of people or entitled those not being prosecuted to benefits like Social Security. 

They should broadcast the costs of granting as many as 5 million mostly low-income, not highly educated people access to our welfare safety net. Also, they need to clarify that choosing not to prosecute illegals does not allow for the elimination of laws that determined that status. The Congress, not the president, is charged with enacting laws.

Related: Immigration Fight with Obama Risks Republican Unity 

As many have noted, it is the president himself who has so ably articulated this latter point – not once or twice but on dozens of occasions. As he said in March 2011, “With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that’s just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed….” He added, “…for me to simply through executive order ignore those Congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.” 

Obama’s about-face on this issue stemmed presumably from his recognition that Congress was not likely to enact comprehensive immigration reform during his second term, thus depriving him of a cherished legacy accomplishment. He worries what the historians will say. 

Unhappily for Mr. Obama, history may well echo the critics of today. Among his most costly shortcomings has been a disdain for working with Congress – the “appropriate role” of a president. Had he put immigration reform at the top of his agenda during his first term, and especially during the two years when Democrats were in the majority, it would have passed.

In acting alone now, out of impatience with our system of checks and balances, he is putting the goal of sensible reform even further in the distance. His pen appears to have run dry; he never even picked up the phone. 

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Opinion: Fix this hot, ugly immigration mess

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(CNN)America’s immigration issue needs a comprehensive and permanent bipartisan legislative solution.

An executive action is a temporary and limited fix. On the night President Obama announced his most recent immigration executive action, I called it a Band-Aid.

Today, we found out, the Band-Aid may not stick.

In a case brought by 26 states, a federal judge in Texas issued an injunction halting implementation of the President’s executive actions: the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (or DAPA) — which would have granted work permits and extended deferred deportation status and expanded the the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children.

What the immigration ruling means

    This is just the beginning of the legal wrangling over this. At issue is whether President Obama exceeded his powers and tried to legislate. This is Congress’ job, and the problem, to state the obvious, is that Congress is not doing it. For decades, Congress has been talking about fixing the broken immigration system. This has gone nowhere.

    TX judge blocks Obama's immigration actionTX judge blocks Obama's immigration action

    On the other side, you have mounting pressure on President Obama from an increasingly frustrated Latino community and Democratic base. He made pie-in-the-sky campaign promises offering immigration reform in his first year in office. In his first two years, he had a Democratic Senate and Democratic House. He had the chance to act. Instead, he sat on his hands as the problem continued to fester.

    What’s worse, as part of the fight over the immigration executive actions, the Congress is now playing a game of chicken with the Department of Homeland Security’s appropriations bill, set to expire in a few days, insisting on amendments to the bill that would block Obama’s immigration actions.

    Hill GOP emboldened after immigration ruling

    Lastly, add to this equation the reality of the millions of confused undocumented families whose lives and livelihoods are in the balance, and who have no idea how this is going to end. The truth is, none of us do.

    GOP stuck on immigration GOP stuck on immigration

    Frankly, the entire thing is a hot, ugly, mess. The President should use this judge’s injunction as an opportunity to invite and pressure Congress to work with him on a bipartisan solution. Halt the implementation of the immigration program. Halt the legal maneuvering. Halt the irresponsible posturing on funding DHS. Set a deadline to pass legislation.

    Fix the immigration problem comprehensively, permanently and fairly.

    Read CNNOpinion’s new Flipboard magazine

    Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion

    Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion

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Obama vows to fight immigration ruling

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Washington (AFP) – US President Barack Obama’s tactic of using executive orders to bypass a hostile Congress and drive through controversial immigration reform has run into legal trouble.

A judge in Texas has blocked an Obama order that would have protected about four million undocumented foreigners from deportation and was due to come into effect from Wednesday.

Twenty-six states — all but two Republican-governed — had sought an emergency injunction against the order, which is a hot political issue heading towards the 2016 presidential election.

The states had claimed Obama’s move was illegal and could oblige them to provide driving licenses and other documents at great cost.

Federal judge Andrew Hanen of the US District Court in Brownsville agreed with their argument and granted a temporary injunction Monday.

“It is far preferable to have the legality of these actions determined before the fates of over four million individuals are decided,” the ruling read.

Families from Mexico, now living in Maryland, attend …

The White House called the ruling wrong, saying the president had acted within his legal authority and vowed an appeal.

Obama and his Democrat allies have tried to push comprehensive immigration reform, which could eventually bring millions of new voters, many seen as likely Democrats.

“The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws,” a statement said.

The White House described Obama’s order as “commonsense policies to help fix our broken immigration system.”

Under the Obama plan, three-year deportation deferrals and work permits were offered for undocumented immigrants who have not committed serious crimes, have been in America at least five years and have children who are American citizens or legal residents.

Protesters call for Florida to be withdrawn from a …

“The district court’s decision wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect and the Department of Justice has indicated that it will appeal that decision,” the White House said.

- ‘Overreach’ -

Conservative Republicans have largely opposed immigration reform, pointing to issues of security and the rule of law.

“President Obama’s executive overreach on immigration poses a clear and present danger to our constitution,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte.

“We cannot allow one man to nullify the law of the land with either a stroke of his pen or a phone call.”

But advocates for immigration reform expressed confidence that Obama’s actions would eventually be ruled legal.

“We are confident that the courts will ultimately side with the scores of legal experts, state leaders, city officials, and law enforcement leaders who say that these immigration initiatives are both in full compliance with law and deeply beneficial to our communities, society, and country,” said Marielena Hincapie of the National Immigration Law Center.

Controversy over both executive orders and immigration reform is likely to burn on until the 2016 election.

Obama has issued a slew of executive orders — touching on North Korea sanctions, abortion, anti-gun-violence, the environment and a host of other issues.

Republicans, who since last year’s mid-term elections have controlled both the House of Representative and the Senate, accuse Obama of being authoritarian.

“The president said 22 times he did not have the authority to take the very action on immigration he eventually did, so it is no surprise that at least one court has agreed,” said Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

Historians point out that previous presidents have made extensive use of executive orders.

President Franklin Roosevelt used an executive order to establish internment camps during World War II and Abraham Lincoln used two to set out the Emancipation Proclamation, according to the National Constitution Center.

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On Trade and Immigration, the GOP Has It Backward

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There are two debates in Washington right now about movement across borders. The first regards trade deals, the second the issue of undocumented immigrants. Based purely on economic evidence, you’d expect trade to be the more difficult issue to agree on. Despite its overall benefit, trade creates domestic losers as well as winners. Immigration, on the other hand, is at worse a wash and at best a huge net positive for groups across the economic spectrum. 

Yet the political winds blow in precisely the opposite direction. President Obama’s efforts to secure new free-trade deals have bipartisan support, while his calls for immigration reform are bitterly opposed by Republicans. That raises the question: Why is moving stuff so much less contentious in Washington than moving people?

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At recent Senate hearings, Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah called President Obama’s chief trade negotiator, Ambassador Michael Froman, one of the best trade representatives the country has ever had. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, also a Republican, suggested that most of the opposition to giving the administration powers to negotiate the upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal came from Democrats. On immigration, by contrast, the Republicans have tied Department of Homeland Security funding to legislation overturning President Obama’s executive actions last year, which delayed deportation of undocumented immigrants. Senate Democrats have blocked that legislation, and the President would veto it regardless. If one side doesn’t back down, the DHS will run out of money on Feb. 27.  This shouting match will likely go down to the wire, and hopes for more comprehensive immigration reform appear dead.

From an economic perspective, supporting free trade but not immigration makes no sense. Even free trade advocates concede that past trade agreements have really hurt some at home—those with manufacturing jobs, for example—and that the current U.S. negotiating position is increasingly dominated by special interests rather than the common good.  Studies of the impact of China’s World Trade Organization accession suggest it was a factor in the rapid drop in U.S. factory jobs in the past decade—a total decline of nearly a fifth from 2001 to 2007. The freer trade that resulted was an overall net benefit to the U.S.—lowering prices and creating jobs elsewhere—but a lot of people lost out and received little help to recover from that loss. Estimates by MIT’s David Autor suggest that the Federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Program provided just 23¢ to help retrain displaced workers for every $1,000 in additional Chinese imports.

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The Trans-Pacific deal will have a comparatively minor impact on manufacturing jobs in the U.S., simply because most of the barriers to manufacturing imports are already gone. That’s also why the broader benefits of the deal are likely to be small. And when you add in the impact of giveaways to special interests, such as intellectual property provisions that lengthen and extend the reach of monopolies granted to pharmaceutical manufacturers, the overall economic effect of the treaty is likely to be somewhere between a small net positive and a small net negative.

With immigration, the potential economic benefits of reform are huge. Angel Aguiar and Terrie Walmsley of Perdue University modeled the difference in overall economic impact between a policy of deportation of all undocumented workers and a policy of full legalization. They suggested the gap was around 1.14 percent of GDP—or a benefit of around $250 billion to the U.S. economy if Congress chose the latter. The group most often assumed to suffer from immigration is low-skilled native workers, but tthere simply isn’t the evidence to back that assumption up. In the words of migration expert Michael Clemens: “Many of the world’s best labor economists have spent the last quarter century exhaustively looking all over the world for negative effects of immigration on low-skilled workers. They cannot find such effects.” 

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What makes the GOP’s divergent positions on trade and immigration even more puzzling is that they’re at odds with public opinion. According to Pew, 55 percent of Americans support the proposition that the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal is “a good thing”—and only 49 percent of Republicans share that view. Compare the percentages backing the policy of “allowing illegal immigrants who are the parents of children with legal status to stay in the U.S. for three years without being subject to deportation, if they pass a background check and have lived in the country for at least five years.”  This substance of Obama’s Executive Action is supported by 76 percent of Americans, including more than two-thirds of Republicans, according to PRRI polling. In addition, 60 percent of Republicans (and more than two-thirds of all Americans) support the provisions of the Dream Act: that illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children should gain legal resident status if they attend college or join the military.

Those numbers change when the question about Obama’s Executive Action is labeled as “President Obama’s policy”—Republican support drops to 51 percent. Similarly, support for the Dream Act drops from 60 percent to 37 percent among Republicans if it is identified with Obama. The natural inclinations of most Republicans are in favor of immigration reform, until they find out that puts them on the same side as the President.

So why has immigration been made into a wedge issue, while Republicans are happy to work with the administration on trade? One explanation points to the process: President Obama is coming to Congress to ask for trade negotiation authority while he bypassed the House and Senate with executive orders on immigration. A more cynical interpretation is that partisan bickering over immigration gives meat to the Tea Party/Minutemen wing of the Republican Party, which opposes immigration for all sorts of reasons unconnected to its economic impact. And it does so in a manner that’s comparatively harmless to Congressional reelection prospects.  While there’s a large overall payoff to immigration reform, the benefits are pretty diffuse—and the biggest benefits undoubtedly flow to the undocumented workers themselves, who can’t vote. 

Whatever it is that’s driving the debate  in Washington at the moment over the global movement of goods, services, and people, one thing is clear: It isn’t the economy, stupid.

 

 

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The Note: Obama's Immigration Actions Hit a Speed Bump

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The Note 2/17/2015

The Note: Obama’s Immigration Actions Hit a Speed Bump

 

By SHUSHANNAH WALSHE (@shushwalshe)

NOTABLES

  • BREAKING OVERNIGHT: A federal judge in Texas has blocked President Obama’s executive action on immigration, giving Texas and 25 other states time to pursue a lawsuit that aims to permanently stop the orders. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s decision comes after a hearing in Brownsville, Texas in January and puts on hold Obama’s order, which could protect millions of immigrants who are here illegally from being deported, ABC’S KATHERINE FAULDERS and DAN GOOD report. Hanen wrote in a memorandum accompanying his order that the lawsuit should go forward and that without a preliminary injunction the states will “suffer irreparable harm in this case.” “The genie would be impossible to put back into the bottle,” he wrote, adding that he agreed with the plaintiffs’ argument that legalizing the presence of millions of people is a “virtually irreversible” action. The ruling will remain in place until a trial before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. http://abcn.ws/1E0XvCd
  • WHITE HOUSE REACTS: “The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws—which is exactly what the President did when he announced commonsense policies to help fix our broken immigration system. Those policies are consistent with the laws passed by Congress and decisions of the Supreme Court, as well as five decades of precedent by presidents of both parties who have used their authority to set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws,” the statement reads. “The Department of Justice, legal scholars, immigration experts, and the district court in Washington, D.C. have determined that the President’s actions are well within his legal authority…The district court’s decision wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect and the Department of Justice has indicated that it will appeal that decision.”
  • WHAT THE DREAMERS ARE SAYING: Cesar Vargas and Erika Andiola, Co-Directors of the Dream Action Coalition issued a statement saying they weren’t surprised by the judge’s decision. “The injunction is clearly based more on politics than law, and is now part of an aggressive effort by the rightward fringe of the GOP to scare Dreamers and parents from applying,” the statement reads. “Nevertheless, we will not let this temporary obstacle stop us from holding forums, encouraging people to collect their paperwork and eventually apply; this injunction is only temporary after all.”
  • ANALYSIS — ABC’S RICK KLEIN: A federal judge in Texas may or may not have delivered Republicans the policy result they wanted in blocking President Obama’s immigration executive order. But Judge Andrew Hanen’s decision could alter the roadmap sufficiently to provide GOP leaders the exit ramp they need so urgently in the current Capitol Hill showdown. Mixing the immigration order with funding for the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t produced the desired results. But in making the case among Republicans for a new strategy, the (at least temporary) success of a legal challenge just might be persuasive. The latest development won’t be the final word on the never-ending wars over immigration policy. Republicans, though, needed a new script – and just might have gotten one, just in time.
  • WATCH ABC’s JON KARL on GOOD MORNING AMERICA today from a snowy White House. Karl reports there’s a good chance – if not likelihood – that courts will ultimately rule in Obama’s favor on this given legal precedent. http://abcn.ws/1CDPCR6
  • THE WHITE HOUSE TODAY, COUNTERING EXTREMISM:  The 3-day White House summit aimed at building and amplifying a counter-message to Islamic extremist groups kicks off today – it will proceed despite the weather, notes ABC’S DEVIN DWYER. The first focus is on domestic strategies to reach out to young, disenfranchised Americans who could be susceptible to recruitment.  They’ll highlight model cities of Minneapolis, Boston and LA, which have what authorities see as effective programs. There will also be discussion of how communities can better use social media to push an alternative message online. Worth noting that this summit, which was scheduled for last fall, is drawing criticism for having too broad a focus (no specific mention of “Islamic” extremism, or ISIS) and for what some see as a too academic approach to an urgent problem. AND ASH CARTER SWORN IN:  The Vice President swears in Ash Carter as the Obama administration’s 4th defense secretary at 11am.
  • ON THE TRAIL: Jeb Bush will attend two DC-area fundraising events for his PAC Right to Rise today. Rand Paul is the guest at a Clermont County, Ohio Republican Party dinner. –Ali Weinberg

 

THE ROUNDTABLE

ABC’S SERENA MARSHALL: The immigration fight is just beginning.  A Texas federal judge issued a halt to President Obama’s executive action on immigration last night. While he didn’t rule the action unconstitutional he halted the ability to implement until legal questions have been answered. Tomorrow USCIS was scheduled to begin accepting applications for expanded DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). No word from them yet on if they will accept applications or not. With rallies already scheduled across the country for DACA we can expect them to use this new ruling to fuel protests, with immigration groups calling it a “temporary setback” as the Justice Department will appeal.  While the Texas judge was assigned the case randomly, it comes as little surprise given a blistering response he wrote to a case in 2013 claiming the government participated in criminal conspiracy to smuggle children into the US. He compared the government reuniting undocumented children with parents the same to them assisting in gun smuggling. So the immigration fight rages on, but most early reaction from immigration seems to be they anticipate this ruling to be overturned.

ABC’S ARLETTE SAENZ: The Texas district court ruling blocking President Obama’s immigration executive actions from taking effect comes just over one week before funding for the Department of Homeland Security is set to run out. Congress has been locked in a tight battle over the funding, which will expire on February 27th, as Republicans have tried to tie immigration to the funding, and with lawmakers home on recess, Congress will return with just days to pass funding for DHS. Last night’s ruling might give Congress a bit of breathing room to pass a short term funding bill without immigration attached to it. But it might also embolden some Republicans who want to ensure the block will be permanent. Overnight, Sen Ted Cruz, whose state led the lawsuit, tweeted the moment was a “HUGE victory for rule of law.” This morning, Sen. John Cornyn, also of Texas, noted in a statement, “Today’s victory is an important one, but the fight to reverse the President’s unconstitutional overreach is not over. The President must respect the rule of law and fully obey the court’s ruling.”

ABC’S JIM AVILA: The president’s executive order was to cover 5 million immigrants and the destructive factor here is the uncertainty again. Many immigrants were reluctant to sign up with the government in the first place for fear if there was an Administration change the order would be revoked and they would then be subject to deportation since they have already signed up giving the government all their information on where they work and where they live. And while it is likely to be overturned that uncertainty hurts the overall plan’s chance of success. This also begs the question of what mainstream Republicans and candidates think. This move reinforces the image that the GOP is the enemy of immigrants and it’s not a great place for the party to be as we approach 2016.

 

WHAT WE’RE READING:

“2016 Ambitions Seen in Walker’s Push for University Cuts in Wisconsin,” by Julie Bosman of the New York Times.  Atop a steep hill on the University of Wisconsin campus is a granite boulder affixed with a bronze plaque honoring the university system’s lofty mission: to benefit the entire state by promoting public service and a search for truth. Summed up in one phrase — “the boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the state” — the mission statement, known as the Wisconsin Idea, has been cherished by educators and graduates for a century. So when Gov. Scott Walker, a second-term Republican, presented a budget this month proposing to delete some of its most soaring passages, as well as to sharply cut state aid to the system, he ignited a furious backlash that crossed party and regional lines. http://nyti.ms/1EkkQMY

“Critics don’t budge Jeb Bush from backing school testing,” by Matt Viser of the Boston Globe.  Jeb Bush has pledged to campaign “joyfully” if he runs for president in 2016, proud of all aspects of his record. That joy will be seriously tested when it comes to his support of Common Core, a national education standard designed to boost student achievement but seen as a symbol of big government by the Republican Party’s conservative base. The former Florida governor has steadfastly embraced Common Core as he considers whether to enter the race, despite increasing criticism from potential rivals and demands that he reconsider his support for the program. Just saying the name Common Core generates animosity among some GOP primary voters. “It’s become Obamacare for education,” said John Brabender, a Pennsylvania-based Republican consultant who has been an adviser to Rick Santorum…To a limited degree, the dynamics are similar to Mitt Romney’s tortured relationship with conservatives over his universal health care plan in Massachusetts. http://bit.ly/1AhA1WH

 

 

THE BUZZ

with ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI:

RAND PAUL PUSHED KENTUCKY RULE CHANGE TO PURSUE PRESIDENCY AND SENATE. Rand Paul is actively looking for ways to run for both president and re-election to the U.S. Senate, something standard in many states, but not legal in his home state of Kentucky. However, the state GOP has some serious concerns about his desired scenario. Paul wrote a letter last week to the state party hoping to convince its members to create a presidential caucus, over a primary in 2016, the Lexington Herald-Leader first reported and the Kentucky GOP state party chairman confirmed to ABC News. Paul’s letter argued it would make Kentucky more relevant in the primary process, but it also deals with the prohibition on candidates appearing on the same ballot twice. Paul and his supporters have been strategizing a work-around since he announced his intention to seek re-election and is also considering a 2016 run for the White House, ABC’s SHUSHANNAH WALSHE reports. In the letter, he cites Rep. Paul Ryan, who lost the vice-presidency in 2012, but was re-elected to his House seat. There are other examples of victories and losses in states where it’s legal including then-Senator Joe Biden in 2008, amongst others, something Paul notes in the letter writing “My request to you is simply to be treated equally compared to other potential candidates for the presidency.” http://abcn.ws/1Eg4hlB

PRESIDENT’S DAY REWIND -

12 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT PAST US COMMANDERS IN CHIEF. Presidents Day is the federal holiday reserved for honoring the leading men of our country. It’s officially “Washington’s Birthday,” but the name has evolved informally over the years to honor not just the first president, but all 43 of them. Keeping this theme in mind, ABC’s MICHELLE MANZIONE notes 12 fun facts you probably didn’t know about our past commanders in chief, with some help from Steven Noll, an expert historian and senior lecturer at the University of Florida. Learn who was the oldest president to serve, which president helped coin the term “seventh-inning stretch,” and why Calvin Coolidge was given the nickname ‘Silent Cal.’  http://abcn.ws/1L5aXXL

HOW UBER RIDERS IN DC GOT TO CRUISE LIKE OBAMA. Uber riders in the nation’s capital got a Presidents Day treat Monday when they logged on to the app: In honor of the holiday, the ride service offered Washingtonians the chance to cruise around town just like the president, ABC’s MOLLY MITCHELL notes. By selecting the “Ubercade” option, riders (along with up to three of their closest “advisers”) could summon their own personal motorcade, consisting of a Cadillac STS escorted by two Suburbans (adorned with U.S. flags) with the entourage completed by Uber “Secret Service” Agents, according to Uber’s D.C. blog. Demand was “off the charts” for the limited-time service, which was priced like Uber’s most discounted ride and ended at 3 p.m., according to Uber. But the lucky Beltway customers who snagged an Ubercade naturally took to social media to show it off. http://abcn.ws/1MsIGMg

ONE FAMILY’S TRADITION YOU HAVE TO SEE TO BELIEVE. Friends of the Jensen family of Washington, D.C., know they shouldn’t expect Christmas cards. Instead, each year Marisa Jensen, her husband, Jeff, and their daughters, Matilda, 15, and Franny, 12, take part in a much more unusual tradition: Presidents Day cards. But these are no ordinary greetings. Marisa and Jeff, a historic preservation specialist at the General Services Administration, dress their children as U.S. presidents in honor of the national holiday, ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI writes. It all started in 2007 when the family was too busy for the traditional holiday family photo. So, instead for Presidents Day they mailed out a card with Matilda dressed as George Washington and Franny as a bearded Abraham Lincoln. “People have really embraced it and look forward to it,” Marisa Jensen said in an interview with ABC News. This year Franny and Matilda applied their own makeup and facial hair to become America’s 21st president, Chester Arthur and eighth president, Martin Van Buren, sideburns and all. http://abcn.ws/1AfmYF7


IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

HHS EXTENDS OBAMACARE SIGNUP DEADLINE. The Department of Health and Human Services has extended the deadline for people trying to enroll in Affordable Care Act coverage through the federal website until Sunday, February 22. The original deadline was Sunday but consumers cited technical delays and long wait periods on the phone. This is in addition to the states who announced extensions via their own exchanges over the weekend, ABC’s ALI WEINBERG reports. “For those consumers who were unable to complete their enrollment because of longer than normal wait times at the call center in the last three days or because of a technical issue such as being unable to submit an application because their income could not be verified, we will provide them with a time-limited special enrollment period for March 1 coverage,” a spokesperson for HHS said in a statement. The spokesperson said only people who started trying to enroll before the extension can take advantage of this extension – although it’s not clear how HHS will verify whether users started signing up before or after February 15th.

 

WHO’S TWEETING?

@ZekeJMiller White House: Due to inclement weather, the daily briefing has been cancelled

@ajjaffe And yet. RT @capitalweather: The winter storm warning has been canceled as accumulating snow has ended across region. http://wapo.st/1Dl0mH8 

 @CHueyBurnsRCP War on women clarion call sounded anew: Emily’s List launches new campaign targeting GOP presidential candidates http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/02/16/emilys_list_targeting_gop_presidential_candidates_125622.html …

@bethreinhard  NH will be “do or die” primary for @GovChristie, reports @heatherhaddon @reidepstein http://on.wsj.com/1EFPsZa  via @WSJ

@MatthewArco  ICYMI: Christie disclosed presidential platform for the first time http://s.nj.com/sYdBkBK 

 

 

 

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The Note: Obama's Immigration Actions Hit a Speed Bump
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[video] Obama's Orders on Immigration Are Halted by Federal Judge in Texas

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(Bloomberg) — The blocking of President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration by a federal judge in Texas is fueling partisan debate in Congress over the plan to protect about 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

The order filed Monday by U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, temporarily halts the administration from carrying out the policies Obama announced after the November elections. Hanen’s order found that Texas, which sued the administration along with 25 states, had satisfied the requirements to bring a lawsuit.

More from Bloomberg.com: Three Reasons Merkel Is so Stubborn

The judge blocked the administration from carrying out the executive order while the legal battle plays out. The ruling is likely to become fodder in a standoff in Congress between Republicans seeking to reverse Obama’s orders and Democrats who’ve maintained a united front in the Senate against even debating the matter.

The ruling “reinforces what I and many others have been saying for a long time: that President Obama acted outside the law when he went around Congress to unilaterally change our nation’s immigration laws,” U.S. Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said in a statement. He added that “the fight to reverse the President’s unconstitutional overreach is not over.”

More from Bloomberg.com: Markets From Stocks to Debt to Euro Show Little Panic

Appeal Pending

The Obama administration said it would appeal the ruling.

“The Department of Justice, legal scholars, immigration experts, and the district court in Washington, D.C. have determined that the President’s actions are well within his legal authority,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement. “The district court’s decision wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect.”

Obama said in November the executive actions would focus the Department of Homeland Security’s resources on deporting violent criminals, protecting other undocumented immigrants from deportation. The executive order would allow undocumented parents of U.S. citizens to apply for work authorization under a “deferred action” plan that would also spare them from deportation.

More from Bloomberg.com: Dollar Risk at $115 Billion Looms Over Turkish Rate Cycle

The first part of Obama’s orders, an expansion of a 2012 program protecting children from deportation, was set to go into effect Wednesday.

The judge’s ruling means those under the age of 16 who arrived on or before January 2010 won’t be able to apply for the program, said David Leopold, past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Yet, the ruling has little effect on actual deportations, he said.

“None of this has to do with starting or stopping deportations,” Leopold said. “They were already using all of the resources available in deporting as many people per year.”

‘Minor Blow’

Immigration advocates cast the ruling as a minor blow since the White House was careful to legally vet the orders before issuing them.

“This ruling — issued by a lone, out-of-touch judge, singularly sought out by extremist Republican governors and attorneys general — is a temporary disappointment, but in no way a permanent setback,” said Rocio Saenz, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union.

Hanen has previously criticized the Obama administration for turning “a blind eye to criminal conduct.”

The judge said in his 123-page ruling that the states are “concerned about their own resources being drained by the constant influx of illegal immigrants into their respective territories, and that this continual flow of illegal immigration has led and will lead to serious domestic security issues directly affecting their citizenry.”

Political Debate

Republicans may use the decision to pressure a handful of Democrats, including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, to join them to bring the legislation up for consideration when Congress returns next week. Obama’s has threatened to veto any legislation reversing his directives.

The Senate has voted three times on a House-passed bill that undoes the president’s November directives giving about 5 million undocumented immigrants a reprieve from deportation.

The measure is attached to a must-pass bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

“President Obama said at least 22 times he didn’t have the authority to do what he did on immigration. No surprise that Judge Hanen agrees,” House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement Tuesday. “We’ll follow the case as it moves forward. Hopefully, Senate Democrats who claim to oppose these unilateral immigration actions will now let the Senate begin debate on our bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.”

The agency would face a shutdown of non-essential operations if Congress doesn’t agree on a spending bill before funding ends Feb. 27. Obama has said he will veto anything that cancels his orders.

Over the weekend, tensions between Democrats and Republicans intensified as House Speaker John Boehner said on the “Fox News Sunday” program that he’s prepared to let homeland security funding lapse if the Senate fails to act on the House-passed bill.

Defuse Standoff?

One Republican, Representative John Carter of Texas, who in the past has tried to craft a bipartisan compromise to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, said the ruling could also help defuse the standoff.

Some rank-and-file Republicans have said Congress could pass a short-term bill to fund the department while the case is appealed, said Carter.

“This is a victory for the Constitution,” said Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, in a Facebook posting.

“This ruling defends the Constitution and protects the rule of law,” Abbott wrote on his personal website.

The case is State of Texas, v. United States of America, 14-cv-00254, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Brownsville).

To contact the reporters on this story: Toluse Olorunnipa in Washington at tolorunnipa@bloomberg.net; Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jodi Schneider at jschneider50@bloomberg.net; Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net Elizabeth Wasserman, Joe Schneider

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Judge Blocks Obama's Action on Immigration

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PHOTO: President Barack Obama speaks about immigration Nov. 21, 2014, at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas.

A federal judge in Texas has blocked President Obama’s executive action on immigration, giving Texas and 25 other states time to pursue a lawsuit that aims to permanently stop the orders.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s decision comes after a hearing in Brownsville, Texas in January and puts on hold Obama’s order, which could protect millions of immigrants who are here illegally from being deported.

Hanen wrote in a memorandum accompanying his order that the lawsuit should go forward and that without a preliminary injunction the states will “suffer irreparable harm in this case.”

“The genie would be impossible to put back into the bottle,” he wrote, adding that he agreed with the plaintiffs’ argument that legalizing the presence of millions of people is a “virtually irreversible” action.

The ruling will remain in place until a trial before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

The White House released a statement Tuesday criticizing the judge’s decision.

“The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws—which is exactly what the President did when he announced commonsense policies to help fix our broken immigration system. Those policies are consistent with the laws passed by Congress and decisions of the Supreme Court, as well as five decades of precedent by presidents of both parties who have used their authority to set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws,” the statement reads.

“The Department of Justice, legal scholars, immigration experts, and the district court in Washington, D.C. have determined that the President’s actions are well within his legal authority. Top law enforcement officials, along with state and local leaders across the country, have emphasized that these policies will also benefit the economy and help keep communities safe. The district court’s decision wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect and the Department of Justice has indicated that it will appeal that decision.”

Cesar Vargas and Erika Andiola, Co-Directors of the Dream Action Coalition, a political and lobbying voice in immigration issues, also issued a statement saying they weren’t surprised by the judge’s decision.

“The injunction is clearly based more on politics than law, and is now part of an aggressive effort by the rightward fringe of the GOP to scare Dreamers and parents from applying,” the statement reads. “Nevertheless, we will not let this temporary obstacle stop us from holding forums, encouraging people to collect their paperwork and eventually apply; this injunction is only temporary after all.”

The first of Obama’s orders protecting young undocumented immigrants was set to start taking effect Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Judge who blocked immigration action had criticized policy

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BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The federal judge in South Texas who temporarily blocked President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration once accused the Obama administration of participating in criminal conspiracies to smuggle children into the U.S. by helping reunite them with parents who live here illegally.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, who regularly handles border cases but wasn’t known for being outspoken on immigration until that previous case, on Monday granted a request by a coalition of 26 states led by Texas to block Obama’s action on immigration while a lawsuit to permanently stop the order goes through the courts. Obama’s executive action could spare from deportation as many as 5 million people who are in the U.S. illegally.

Hanen, who’s been on the federal court since 2002 after being nominated by President George W. Bush, spent several years handling the federal government’s land condemnation cases to build the border fence, many times compelling government lawyers to slow down and take necessary procedural steps.

He expressed frustration, however, in a December 2013 order in an immigrant-smuggling case that he’d had four situations in a month in which children who arrived in the U.S. illegally alone were reunited with parents who were themselves in the country illegally.

Hanen sentenced a smuggler to 10 months in prison in that case but saved his most withering words for the U.S. government for not arresting and deporting the mother who hired the smuggler to get her 10-year-old daughter into the U.S. from El Salvador. The government has generally been temporarily reuniting such children with their relatives inside the United States pending deportation proceedings.

“Instead of arresting (the child’s mother) for instigating the conspiracy to violate our border security laws, the (Homeland Security Department) delivered the child to her — thus successfully completing the mission of the criminal conspiracy,” Hanen wrote.

FILE- In this Sept. 5, 2014, file photo, a U.S. Customs …

The judge compared the cases to the government seizing weapons being smuggled across the border and delivering them to the criminals inside the United States who ordered them.

“DHS has simply chosen not to enforce the United States’ border security laws,” Hanen wrote. He said the government’s failures to enforce immigration laws were “both dangerous and unconscionable,” although he separately noted, “This court takes no position on the topic of immigration reform, nor should one read this opinion as a commentary on that issue.”

Hanen grew up in Waco, Texas, graduated from Denison University in Ohio in 1975 and went to Baylor University School of Law in Waco, where he graduated first in his class in 1978, according to an autobiography provided by his office. He practiced civil trial law for more than 20 years in Houston.

Lawyers for Texas filed the latest lawsuit in Brownsville, where Hanen is one of only two judges in that division of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Hanen, who gets half of all civil cases filed there, was assigned the case through an automated system.

It’s not unusual for plaintiffs in sensitive civil cases to shop for a court jurisdiction friendly to their point of view, but the location of the court generally must have some connection to the case. In this case, just about any court in Texas would suffice.

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