Civil and Human Rights Coalition Condemns Ruling to Temporarily Halt President’s Executive Action on Immigration

WASHINGTON – Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement following the decision by a Texas federal judge to temporarily halt President Obama’s executive action on immigration:

“Yesterday’s outrageous decision is far from the last word on the president’s executive action on immigration. As a long list of legal scholars have said, the president’s actions were well within the boundaries of his constitutional authority to establish immigration enforcement priorities while protecting thousands of immigrant parents who contribute to our nation every day from the threat of indiscriminate deportation.

In temporarily delaying the implementation of the president’s executive action, the judge has substituted his own policy prerogatives while ignoring both the Constitution and longstanding precedent. This decision, like the lawsuit, simply has no legal merit and we’re confident that the administration will prevail as the case moves through the courts.

We applaud the administration’s efforts to overturn this decision and we urge immigrants who qualify to continue to prepare to apply for DAPA and the DACA extension.”

Wade Henderson is the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

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