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Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

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Monday, February 23, 2015

Obama Administration to Ask for Stay on Immigration Ruling

Wall Street Journal
By Byron Tau
February 20, 2015

The Obama administration will ask a federal court to allow it to continue implementing the president’s immigration plan, following a legal setback this past week.

The Department of Justice plans to file a request for an emergency stay of a recent injunction, which temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland Security’s rollout of its immigration program, while it appeals that ruling. The program would allow about four million people currently in the country illegally to apply for deferred deportation and work authorizations.

Attorneys for the Justice Department will make the request by Monday at the latest, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Friday. The stay, if granted, would allow the administration to continue laying the groundwork for its Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program.

A federal judge in Texas issued an order temporarily blocking a federal immigration program that would have potentially shielded millions from deportation. Why? WSJ’s Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer.

“When they have filed those documents, they and we will be in the position to talk a little bit more about our legal strategy,” Mr. Earnest said.

Late Monday, a federal district-court judge in Texas blocked the administration from implementing the program in response to a lawsuit from 26 states, which allege President Barack Obama has overstepped his executive authority in creating the program announced in November.

The administration has said it is planning a separate appeal of the decision to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The fight could quickly move to the U.S. Supreme Court. If a stay is granted, the federal government would be able to immediately press ahead with its pending immigration programs.

With its programs currently on hold, “it’s not surprising that they are seeking a stay,” said attorney David Leopold, past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have argued that the president’s failure to enforce the nation’s immigration laws is a breach of his duty and have threatened to hold up funding for the Department of Homeland Security to keep the immigration actions from coming into effect. Funding for the department expires this coming week.

Mr. Obama said this past week that he was confident that the court system would ultimately vindicate his actions. “I think the law is on our side and history is on our side,” Mr. Obama said in remarks at the White House.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the stay request should be denied. “A stay is typically granted to have the status quo maintained,” he said. “Here the status quo is the immigration law passed by Congress, not the executive action by the president that rewrites immigration law.”

Immigration advocates cheered the administration’s decision to fight the ruling, saying that illegal immigrants can’t wait for the court system to solve the legal impasse.


“The Department of Justice is standing on the right side of the law and on the right side of history,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center advocacy group. “We should not allow a flawed legal decision to delay these changes any longer.”

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com

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