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Issued in February by Texas-based U.S. District Court Judge
Andrew Hanen, the injunction halted programs unveiled in
November intended to shield 4.7 million undocumented immigrants
from deportation.
The programs angered many Republicans who accused the president
of executive overreach and granting amnesty to lawbreakers, but
drew praise from immigrant rights advocates.
Hundreds of pro-immigrant advocates are expected to rally in
front of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals courthouse in
New Orleans where arguments in the case are set to be heard.
On April 7, the Fifth Circuit ruled that U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement officers and the state of Mississippi lacked
standing to sue over a separate immigration action issued by
Obama in 2012 allowing immigrants brought to the United States
as children to stay.
That decision may signal that the three-judge panel hearing
arguments on Friday could be inclined to temporarily lift
Hanen's injunction, some observers said, which would let the
administration proceed with implementing the president's
landmark immigration action.
In its published opinion, the court said it was "purely
speculative" that Mississippi had sustained fiscal injury as a
result of the 2012 action.
The 26 states that sued over Obama's November 2014 action made
claims like those in Mississippi's case.
Still, it is unclear whether the administration will prevail in
the Fifth Circuit, considered one of the most conservative
courts in the country.
The Fifth Circuit is due to hear a full appeal later this year
to permanently undo Hanen's decision in a case that could
ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
(Reporting by Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans and Julia Edwards
in Washington; Editing by Michael Perry)
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