The Justice Department on Thursday asked a federal appeals court to lift the judge's ruling that stopped President Obama's immigration executive actions from going into effect during a lawsuit over the constitutionality of the actions.
If successful, the move would allow the government to continue with its plans to implement the Obama's executive actions while the court makes a determination on the lawsuit.
Last month, a federal district judge in Texas, Andrew Hanen, issued the temporary injunction that stopped the actions from going into place. After the ruling was issued, the White House told reporters that the DOJ would seek an emergency order from an appeals court to allow the federal government to continue with Obama's executive actions.
The Justice Department's filing to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday asking for emergency relief in the case follows a decision by the judge, Hanen, to delay ruling on the Justice Department's stay request filed in his court. He will first rule on another issue related to the immigration actions.
Prior to filing the request at the 5th Circuit, the Justice Department filed a notice with Hanen's court, responding to questions he raised earlier this week about the roughly 100,000 three-year deferrals the Department of Homeland Security has granted under the initial "substantive eligibility guidelines" of the 2012 DACA [spell it out] program and informed Hanen that the department would be asking the 5th Circuit for a stay given the "critical federal interests at issue."
