Off the wire
• Urgent: UN envoy sees hope of political solution to Syrian crisis  • U.S. gov't tightens export controls for military, commercial drones  • Russia's Putin visits Hungary in bid for support from EU member  • Roundup: Canadian stock market raises inches higher amid Greek concerns  • EU commissioner urges Macedonian opposition to end boycot in parliament  • UN calls on all parties in Kokang region, Myanmar to defuse tension  • Belgian FM praises Albania's steps for EU integration  • EU official raises concerns over Ukraine conflict  • World Bank, FAO team up to help rural communities affected by Ebola in Guinea  • Interpol re-issues arrest warrant for Hungary's MOL CEO  
You are here: 　 Home

Obama confident about winning lawsuit against immigration court order

Xinhua, February 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday expressed confidence that the decision by a federal judge in the state of Texas which temporarily blocked his last year's executive action on immigration would be overruled.

"The law is on our side," Obama told reporters at the White House, shortly after the Department of Homeland Security said it would comply with the ruling and put the new deportation-relief program on hold on the eve of its launch.

"The Department of Homeland Security will continue with the planning because we want to make sure that as soon as these legal issues get resolved - which I anticipate they will, in our favor - that we are ready to go," said Obama.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled late Monday night to block Obama's executive action to shield as many as 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation and bought time for 26 states which oppose the executive action to pursue a lawsuit to permanently end Obama's executive orders.

The White House earlier Tuesday defended Obama's executive action on immigration as "well within his (Obama) legal authority. "

"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," said the White House in the statement, stressing that Obama's immigration policies were consistent with the laws passed by Congress and decisions of the Supreme Court.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said later that the Justice Department was reviewing the ruling and was confident the matter would ultimately be taken up by a higher court, possibly the Supreme Court.

The first phase of Obama's executive orders on immigration was set to start taking effect Wednesday. As a result, young immigrants would be protected from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. soil illegally as children. The second phase would include the protection from deportation for undocumented parents of Americans and was not expected to begin till May.

Obama's announcement of his decision to act unilaterally last year drew anger from Republicans who immediately blasted Obama for acting unconstitutionally and Republican lawmakers in Congress are now waging a battle with their Democratic counterparts to link the funding of the Department of Homeland Security with killing Obama' s immigration orders. Endite