The US. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a brief to an appeals court against the 26 U.S. states blocking President Barack Obama's immigration executive actions' two deferred action programs.

According to the brief, the deferred action programs would be for undocumented immigrants who "pose no such threats" and have "longstanding and close family ties" in the U.S. The brief claimed the policies in question is permissible by the authority granted by Congress to enforce immigration laws.

The DOJ touted the Obama administration's efforts to enforce immigration laws by referencing the more than 2.4 million immigrants deported and "substantially" increased border security during the last six years. The DOJ also criticized U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of the Southern District of Texas' Brownsville Division's decision to rule in support of the 26 states and grant a temporary injunction. The states claimed Obama overreached his executive powers and the deferred action programs would be a financial burden.

"[A]ny costs Texas might incur do not constitute a cognizable injury because they would result from the State's own choice to subsidize the cost of licenses rather than requiring applicants to bear the cost themselves, and because such costs would also likely be more than offset by these same policies' expected economic gains to the States," the DOJ briefing noted.

Hanen made the ruling on Feb. 16 to pause the administration's plans to implement the expanded guidelines of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and new Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) programs. Those programs would grant approximately 4.9 million eligible undocumented immigrants the opportunity to stay in the U.S., avoid deportation for three years and obtain a work permit.

The briefing recognized, "Deferred action does not give an alien any legal right to remain in this country; DHS may revoke deferred action and initiate removal proceedings at any time. And while work authorization may follow from [U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson's] choice of deferred action, an alien's ability to obtain work authorization flows from a decades-old, unchallenged regulation that was itself the product of notice-and-comment rulemaking."

The Justice Department also said Hanen's temporary injunction violated other states who have supported the deferred action programs. The DOJ is seeking for the temporary injunction to be reversed, or at least maintain the temporary injunction for the 26 states participating in the lawsuit.

As Latin Post reported, a hearing is scheduled on April 17.

The lawsuit, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, includes Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

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