Immigration Reform News 2015: New Orleans Federal Court to Hear Oral Arguments

The U.S. Justice Department and attorneys for 26 states will make their oral arguments Friday before the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans regarding the Obama administration's immigration executive actions that were halted by a Texas court.

Government lawyers will ask the court to lift the injunction issued by Texas Judge Andrew Hanen in February that prevented the Department of Homeland Security from implementing the expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents. The two programs were initiated by the Obama administration to grant relief from deportation of about 4.7 million eligible aliens in the U.S.

The Justice Department filed a motion with the New Orleans appeals court last March to temporarily lift the order, saying that it undermined the Homeland Security secretary's authority to enforce immigration laws.

"The district court's order is unprecedented and wrong," the justice department underscored in its motion.

Last month, Hanen issued an injunction against the Obama administration's executive actions that were announced last November. The injunction stemmed from a lawsuit filed by 26 states against the immigration programs.

Last week, the Fifth Circuit made a decision that some lawyers said shows the three-judge panel may be inclined to lift Hanen's injunction. Such a step would give the green light for the Obama administration to ahead with its landmark immigration action, according to Reuters.

The Fifth Circuit ruled last April 7 that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and the state of Mississippi lacked legal standing to sue over a separate immigration order issued by President Obama in 2012 that allowed immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to stay.

It ruled that it was "purely speculative" that Mississippi had sustained fiscal injury as a result of the immigration program.

The 26 states which sued over the immigration programs announced last November had similar claims in the Mississippi case.

"The court's decision in the Mississippi case definitely signals that Texas and the other states may have a less friendly audience than they did with Hanen," said immigration law professor Michael Kagan of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

But it is still not clear if the New Orleans court will lift the injunction.

The court will hear a full appeal by mid-year to permanently lift Hanen's order and either side may go to the Supreme Court, Reuters said.