U.S. files for emergency stay on Obama immigration action

By Ana Ley

Monday, Feb. 23, 2015 | 1 p.m.

The U.S. Justice Department today filed a request for federal judge to lift his decision halting President Barack Obama’s deportation deferral program.

The motion was filed in response to a Feb. 19 court order by Judge Andrew Hanen that sided with a coalition of 26 states suing Obama over a contentious executive action granting deportation relief to 5 million undocumented immigrants. The suit, filed initially by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, is backed by Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt.

The Justice Department also issued a notice that it plans to appeal Hanen’s decision with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Hanen’s injunction left millions of potential beneficiaries in limbo just two days before they could begin applying for legal protection under an expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Lifting the ban will preserve the “significant law enforcement and humanitarian benefits” of Obama’s executive action, the motion says. It asks Hanen to put his ruling on hold while Obama’s legal team appeals the decision.

Obama announced the executive action in November during a visit to Del Sol High School in Las Vegas. The visit marked the start of a series of events that thrust Las Vegas into the nation’s intensifying immigration reform debate.

Laxalt on Wednesday will discuss the Texas-led lawsuit before the House Judiciary Committee. The attorney general brought Nevada into the Texas-led lawsuit last month, and it became the 26th state to legally challenge Obama’s deal.

Laxalt joined the suit without the support of Gov. Brian Sandoval, and the move made political waves in Nevada. Laxalt and Sandoval’s own Republican Party was split, with some backing Laxalt and others arguing that litigation was not the right way to challenge the president’s deal.

Also on Wednesday, Astrid Silva — a local activist who became the face for Obama’s immigration deal after the president’s November visit — will join the president at a town hall event in Miami hosted by MSNBC and Telemundo.

There is no consensus among legal experts about whether Hanen’s decision will be reversed.

“I think it’s entirely possible that within a week, the injunction will be lifted, and it’s entirely likely it won’t be,” UNLV law professor Michael Kagan said last week​.

“I’m hesitant to make predictions because I wouldn’t want to tell supporters it’s going to go away at the risk of disappointing them. Litigation never makes for a neat and tidy press release,” Kagan said.