Judge Blocks Obama's Executive Orders on Deportations

A federal judge in Texas late Monday blocked President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration that could spare as many as five million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Early Tuesday morning, the White House vowed to appeal the judge’s ruling, issued in response to a filing by 26 states.

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The first of President Obama’s executive orders was set to go into effect Wednesday. It would allow immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to remain here.

Another executive order that would prevent the deportation of parents of U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for years was scheduled to go into effect May 19.

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The coalition of 26 states was led by Texas. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared the decision by Judge Andrew Hanen “rightly stops the President’s overreach in its tracks.”

But the White House fired back in a statement, “The district court’s decision wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect and the Department of Justice has indicated that it will appeal that decision.”

In their filing to block the action, the 26 states had claimed that the President’s actions violated the Constitution, and the impacted states would suffer irreparable harm.