ACLU Comment on Granting of Preliminary Injunction in Texas, et al. v. United States

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SAN FRANCISCO – A federal district court in Texas issued a ruling today in Texas, et al. v. United States, the 26-state lawsuit challenging the immigration initiatives announced by President Obama last November. The ruling grants a preliminary injunction, blocking the implementation of Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and the expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Cecillia Wang, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project had this comment:

Despite its extreme and inflammatory rhetoric, the Texas court decision does not explicitly hold that DAPA, DACA, or any other part of the federal government’s executive actions, is unconstitutional.

The decision is very narrow, holding only that the federal government may have failed to follow procedural requirements before implementing Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and the expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

While this setback is serious and should be redressed in due course, the government’s other reforms to protect civil liberties and immigrant communities — including the fundamental principle that the Department of Homeland Security may set priorities for immigration enforcement and exercise prosecutorial discretion — ​remain in place.