Judge Andrew Hanen of the U.S. District Court in Texas ruled on Monday that the president’s executive action, which would protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation, must be suspended until a lawsuit filed by 26 states, including Texas, which declares the plan unconstitutional, is resolved.
Judge Hanen, who is a critic of the Obama administration’s immigration policy, found that the states had satisfied the minimum legal requirements necessary to bring their lawsuit forward, and that the federal government had not complied with administrative procedures necessary to roll out such a major program.
The administration has argued that Obama is respecting precedent for federal authority on matters of immigration, but the plaintiffs have said the move represents dangerous overreach by the executive branch, which would unilaterally impose huge costs on their budgets, The New York Times reported.
The ruling was made shortly before one of the provisions of Obama’s executive action was set to come into effect on Wednesday. The administration was set to begin accepting applications for a revamped version of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which would allow undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children to stay and work legally.