The Obama administration will by Monday ask an appeals court for a temporary ruling lifting a Texas judge’s order halting the president’s orders to protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation while it appeals the decision.
The US department of justice plans to seek an emergency order by Monday at the latest, the White House said, allowing the government to proceed with orders protecting migrants brought illegally to the US as children and the illegal parents of American citizen children and permanent residents.
A federal judge imposed a temporary injunction late on Monday in a lawsuit brought by 25 states who claim that Mr Obama exceeded his constitutional authority with his plans announced last November to offer effective legal status to as many as five million illegal immigrants.
"We believe that when you evaluate the legal merits of the argument, that there is a solid legal foundation for the president to take the steps that he announced late last year to reform our broken immigration system," Mr Obama's press secretary Josh Earnest said.
The department of homeland security, which oversees the immigration system, was due to have started accepting applications from eligible immigrants on Tuesday under the president’s orders until the court’s ruling indefinitely postponed the start of the programme.
It is estimated that thousands of Irish would benefit from Mr Obama’s actions.
