U.S. Justice Department asks judge to allow Obama's immigration action to proceed

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday asked a Texas federal judge to lift his injunction against U.S. President Barack Obama's immigration executive actions while filing a motion to appeal the judge's preliminary ruling.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a daily briefing that the Justice Department was seeking an emergency stay from Texas judge Andrew Hanen, whose ruling last week put Obama's immigration initiatives on hold on the eve of its launch.

The emergency stay, if granted by Hanen, would allow the Obama administration to continue its deportation-relief program for millions of illegal immigrants while awaiting the lawsuit to proceed through the higher courts.

Earnest said the Obama administration had already prepared its Plan B, should Judge Hanen refuse to grant a full stay. In that case, they would seek a stay in states other than Texas.

"So in the view of the federal government, the question that we 've (been) asking is if you won't grant a stay for the full injunction, then you should just grant a stay so that we can move forward with these executives actions in other states," said Earnest, adding that unlike Texas, a number of states said they welcomed the executive actions.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled on Jan. 16 to block Obama's executive actions which aimed to shield as many as 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation, buying time for 26 states which challenge the executive action to pursue a lawsuit to permanently end Obama's executive orders.

Officials from the Justice Department earlier said they were concerned that the department's move to solicit a stay would push judge Hanen to make a final decision, which in turn would delay the filing of a formal appeal in the higher courts. Endite