What made a Federal Judge Temporarily Halting Obama’s Amnesty Plan.

What made a Federal Judge Temporarily Halting Obama’s Amnesty Plan. (Heritage).

The 26 states that sued President Obama over his unilateral amnesty plan for illegal aliens won a major battle on Monday when a federal judge issued a temporary injunction against the plan’s implementation. In a fitting bit of irony, the order was issued on President’s Day, a day when we remember the great men who fulfilled their duties as heads of the second branch of government.

In his order, Judge Andrew Hanen enjoined Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, from implementing “any and all aspects or phases of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents ‘DAPA’) program as set out” by Johnson in his Nov. 20, 2014 memorandum that executed the president’s announced plan. In other words, the Obama administration can no longer implement the executive actions Obama took on immigration.

Hanen’s lengthy opinion provides an extensive, well-researched, well-written review of the history of the Obama administration’s actions in the immigration area and points out the many problems caused by its lack of enforcement and overriding of federal immigration law.

Hanen agrees that Homeland Security does have discretion “in the manner in which it chooses to fulfill the expressed will of Congress” in federal immigration law.

But it cannot “enact a program whereby it not only ignores the dictates of Congress, but actively acts to thwart them.” In fact, the Homeland Security secretary “is not just rewriting the laws; he is creating them from scratch.”

The states don’t disagree that the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over immigration, but they argue “that the Government has abandoned its duty to enforce the law.” Hanen concludes that “this assertion cannot be disputed.” Read the full story here.