1st LD: U.S. Supreme Court blocks White House's immigration plan

U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a heavy blow to the White House's immigration program by remaining in place a lower court's ruling that blocked the program.

By voting 4-4, the Supreme Court on Thursday left in place a previous ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal against U.S. President Barack Obama's controversial immigration executive action in 2014.

In 2014, Obama resorted to his executive authority to circumvent Congress and push forward immigration reforms by seeking to provide as many as 5 million illegal immigrants with work permit while shielding the majority of them from deportation.

Republicans immediately outcried the action as an illegal executive overreach.

In its defense, the White House previously said the Supreme Court and Congress had made clear that "the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws."

The first phase of Obama's executive action on immigration reform was supposed to start taking effect in February last year.

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 extend immunity to deportation to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

However, the new deportation-relief program never kicked off after U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Texas issued a court injunction against the program on the eve of its launch. Enditem