Jeh Johnson, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), yesterday declared that he fully expects the Obama administration to triumph in the court battle over the legality of the president’s executive action on immigration; however, the DHS will comply with the order of federal judge Andrew Hanen not to proceed with the plans at this time.
In a statement Johnson declared: “We fully expect to ultimately prevail in the courts.” He conceded, however, that the two deferred action programs that could protect as many as five million undocumented immigrants from the threat of deportation will be temporarily suspended by the DHS. On Monday Hanen filed an order to prevent the plans moving forward in response to a lawsuit filed by as many as 26 states.
One of the deferred action programs was scheduled to commence today and would have applied to around 3.5 million undocumented parents of children with US citizenship. These parents would be able to obtain work permits and be protected from deportation, while the second program is intended to expand the current deferred action policy enacted by President Obama back in 2012.
Johnson says that both law enforcement and the US economy would benefit from the executive action taken by the president. He also claims that illegal border crossings have reached their “lowest level in years” and that the great majority of undocumented immigrants now being deported are those convicted of criminal offenses.