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 Ruling in favor of about two dozen U.S. states opposed to the
plan, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, said
the administration had not complied with procedure.
The White House said the Department of Justice would appeal the
decision, which was posted on the Los Angeles Times website.
(http://bit.ly/1E1dIqZ)
Obama announced a program in November to lift the threat of
deportation from some 4.7 million illegal immigrants using his
executive authority. The move bypassed Congress, which has not
passed immigration reform legislation despite several attempts.
The program would allow some 4.4 million people whose children are
U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents stay in the country
temporarily.
 Another 270,000 people would be able to stay under the expansion of
a 2012 program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA) that offered deportation relief to people brought illegally
to the United States as children, allowing them work. That expansion
was scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
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."
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"Top law enforcement officials, along with state and local leaders
across the country, have emphasized that these policies will also
benefit the economy and help keep communities safe."
Both Democrats and Republicans are likely to seize upon the issue
and the court's ruling in the 2016 presidential campaign.
The administration's move had drawn praise from immigrant advocates
including Hispanics, who make up a critical voting bloc that has
largely thrown its support to Democrats in favor of granting relief
to the some 11 million undocumented people.
"We firmly believe that these programs will be implemented, and
whether it's now or several months from now, we have no question
that the president was well within the bounds of his executive
authority," said Melissa Crow, Legal Director of the American
Immigration Council group.
"We really feel that this case is more about politics than law," she
said.
Barring an unlikely legislative deal in the last two years of his
presidency, the executive action would become a key legacy item for
Obama, who promised in his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns to
reform the system.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Jonathan Stempel, Chris Michaud and Ted
Kerr; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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