Federal Judge Says States Had Right to Sue Obama Over Immigration

Ruling faults how quickly president moved on immigration policy, points to law that requires public-comment period

Republican opponents of President Barack Obama ’s immigration actions attempting to block his policies in court gained needed legal traction for their fight from a Texas-based federal judge’s opinion released late Monday.

President Barack Obama during a meeting in the
Oval Office on Feb. 4 with a group of undocumented
 immigrants. Photo: Zuma Press

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s 123-page opinion found that officials from 26 states had the right to challenge the law—something the Justice Department disputed—and offered a scathing indictment of how the White House put its policies in place.

The ruling breathes life into the mostly Republican effort to block Mr. Obama’s immigrations actions announced last year, following a setback in December in which a similar case was thrown out of federal district court in Washington, D.C.

Read the Court Opinion HERE

Judge Hanen, a 2002 George W. Bush appointee who sits in Brownsville, Texas, found the states had ample legal standing to sue the administration. For instance, Judge Hanen observed that illegal immigrants granted deferrals could be eligible for drivers’ licenses, which cost more to issue than is collected in license fees.

His conclusion contrasts against one made in December by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who dismissed a lawsuit against the policy filed by Joseph Arpaio, the Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff known for his tough anti-immigrant stands. Judge Howell, a 2010 Obama appointee, found claims of increased law-enforcement costs were too attenuated to give Mr. Arpaio standing to pursue the suit.

Judge Hanen’s opinion suggested sympathy with arguments the states made that the administration’s policy ran contrary to federal immigration law. But he reserved a final ruling on those claims, deciding for now to temporarily halt the program on procedural grounds while a trial proceeds.

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