DOJ Files Stay Request in Texas v. U.S.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 12, 2015

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, [email protected], 213-400-7822

Department of Justice Takes Strong Step to Stem Harm Caused by District Court Ruling in Texas

Emergency stay request should be granted without delay

LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Department of Justice has filed an emergency stay request to allow President Obama’s recent immigration initiatives to go into effect while the appellate court considers Texas, et al. v. United States, et al., the pending lawsuit against the immigration initiatives. The stay request, which was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, would allow the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) expansion, along with the deferred action initiative for parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (DAPA), to be implemented. The National Immigration Law Center, along with several civil, labor, and immigrants’ rights organizations, filed a brief in support of the Obama administration in this case. Below is a statement from Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center:

“This filing rightly recognizes that our communities are robbed of the opportunity to live free from fear of deportation and our economy is deprived of much-needed fiscal benefits with each day that this injunction remains in place. The legal bar for granting such a stay is high, and for good reason: our justice system can and should consider fully the facts of each case. However, we firmly believe that in this case, like in other recent major civil rights cases, the Department of Justice’s request more than meets these high standards.

“Although they may disagree on the politics, legal experts across the ideological spectrum agree that the actions President Obama took to mend parts of our broken immigration system fell well within the president’s legal authority. The wheels of justice may turn slowly, but that’s no reason to allow people and our economy to suffer while this case makes its way through the courts. The Fifth Circuit can and should grant this important emergency stay request, and they should do so without delay.”

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