DOJ plans to appeal immigration ruling before Supreme Court
The Obama administration plans to appeal a federal court's ruling late Monday that upholds the stay on President Obama's 2014 immigration executive actions, directing the case to the Supreme Court.
"The Department disagrees with the Fifth Circuit's adverse ruling and intends to seek further review from the Supreme Court of the United States," Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesman at the Justice Department, said Tuesday morning.
A three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to uphold a Texas-based judge's earlier injunction that has blocked the implementation of Mr. Obama's immigration proposals for months.
Unveiled nearly a year ago, the administration's plan is intended to protect 5 million illegal immigrants from being deported.
"The Department of Justice remains committed to taking steps that will resolve the immigration litigation as quickly as possible in order to allow DHS to bring greater accountability to our immigration system by prioritizing the removal of the worst offenders, not people who have long ties to the United States and who are raising American children," Rodenbush added Tuesday.
The administration's executive actions were to expand the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protects people from deportations who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. The plan would was to create a new program that would protect parents of U.S. citizens from being deported and allow them to seek temporary work permits.
Obama introduced the plan last November after he said Congress failed to heed his calls to pass immigration reform legislation.
In response, congressional Republicans have said that the president overstepped his executive authority and violated the Constitution with his new orders. A group of conservatives even tried to defund the immigration orders earlier this year, risking a government shutdown in February.
Meanwhile, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, has already ruled out working with Mr. Obama on immigration reform for the duration of the president's tenure because Ryan objects to what he considers a unilateral rewriting of immigration laws.
CBS News' Paula Reid contributed to this report.