Obama immigration plan still on hold after court setback

Federal appeals court denies administration’s application to lift judicial injunction

A lifting of the hold on the president’s order would have granted protection from deportation as well as work permits to millions of immigrants in the country illegally. Photograph: Getty Images
A lifting of the hold on the president’s order would have granted protection from deportation as well as work permits to millions of immigrants in the country illegally. Photograph: Getty Images

A federal appeals court on Tuesday denied the Obama administration’s request to lift a hold on the president’s executive actions on immigration, which would have granted protection from deportation as well as work permits to millions of immigrants in the country illegally.

Two of three judges on a panel of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, in New Orleans, left in place an injunction by a federal district judge in Brownsville, Texas.

The ruling comes in a lawsuit by 26 states against actions US president Barack Obama took in November. Many of the initiatives were scheduled to take effect this month.

The appeals court found that Texas and the other states did have sufficient legal grounds to bring the lawsuit and that the administration had not shown it would be harmed if the injunction remained in the place and the programmes were further delayed.

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– (New York Times)