This round is a win for the states - 26 of them, anyway - as U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen has ruled that the Obama Administration did not follow the law when the president decided unilaterally to extend blanket amnesty to illegal aliens with no authorization for Congress. Of course, this is just the first round of the battle:
Some 26 states, led by Texas and its Republican governor, Greg Abbott, sued the administration to halt the programs, arguing that Obama's orders violated constitutional limits on his powers. They requested an injunction to block the programs from going into force while the legal process played out.
"Judge Hanen's decision rightly stops the president's overreach in its tracks," said Abbott, who took to Twitter to laud the ruling.
"The president's attempt to by-pass the will of the American people was successfully checked today."
Republicans had said Obama's plan amounted to an essential amnesty for people who entered the country illegally.
Responding to the ruling, the White House said the Supreme Court and Congress had made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing immigration laws, "which is exactly what the President did when he announced commonsense policies to help fix our broken immigration system."
No, that is not what the president did. Setting priorities means deciding which cases to prosecute based on evidence and a whole host of other factors. Refusing to enforce a particular law under any circumstance - essentially suspending a duly enacted law at the whim of the executive - is in direct violation of the president's oath of office.
It would be great to think this simply the end of the matter, but you know it won't be. The administration will appeal the decision, and decisions on up the line will probably depend on the political leanings of the judges in question. Get a Reagan- or Bush-appointed judge, the states will win the ruling. Get a Carter-, Clinton- or Obama-appointed judge, the administration will win. And on it will go until one side gives or it ends up in front of the Supreme Court.
In the meantime, we watch the goings-on in Congress to see if Boehner and McConnell can really keep their troops in line to hang tough on a bill to fund Homeland Security without funding amnesty. You'd think it would be simple. Pass a bill that funds everything else DHS does but that denies the administration the right to use any of the funds for amnesty. Obama can sign the bill and keep DHS running, or he can refuse in the service of his amnesty order - and the shutdown's on him.
Disciplined leaders would keep it simple like that, and would be able to persuade their members that this is the best way to win the battle. We'll see how it turns out. Hopefully they don't try to use Judge Hanen's ruling as an excuse to bail on the fight, because the legal battle has a long way to go.
In the meantime, at least for now, I guess these guys will have to go back to seeking help from their cousin's friend who thought that her aunt knew a man who could help.
