IRLI Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Challenging Obama’s Executive Action

May 11, 2015

Returning authority over immigration policy to Congress

May 11, 2015

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), along with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, The Remembrance Project (an organization commemorating the lives lost due to illegal alien-crime), and the National Sheriffs’ Association (a professional group made up of thousands of sheriffs, deputies, other law enforcement, public safety professionals, and concerned citizens nationwide), filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the twenty-six states that sued to stop the Obama Administration’s latest unlawful executive action granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. In the case of Texas v. US (Civil Action No. 15-40238), the Obama Administration appealed to the Fifth Circuit, asking it to reverse the lower court’s decision to halt the program after it was found to be in violation of federal law.

In their brief (attached here), IRLI provides a clear and concise summary of the comprehensive legal framework that Congress put in place precisely to control the Executive Branch’s politicization of immigration policy. Further, IRLI’s brief shows that the Obama Justice Department’s argument that the Executive can hand out work permits to any illegal alien it chooses lacks merit and that they’re misapplying Supreme Court precedent in their attempts to deny the ability of federal judges to review the Executive’s actions.

Dale L. Wilcox, IRLI’s Executive Director, commented, “The Obama Administration claims not only that they have unlimited discretion in doling out amnesty and benefits to illegal aliens, but that their actions can’t even be reviewed by federal courts. In our brief filed today, we show the Fifth Circuit that the White House and the anti-sovereignty fanatics occupying our government are 100 percent wrong.” Wilcox continued, “By upholding Judge Hanen’s injunction, the Fifth Circuit will curb the Executive’s abuse of our immigration laws, just like our representatives in Congress had tried to do by implementing a comprehensive framework for immigration control in the Immigration and Nationality Act.”