Texas Leaders Say State Will Win Immigration Case

February 19, 2015

Texas Republicans on Wednesday continued their celebration of a federal judge’s decision to halt President Obama’s executive action on immigration, expressing confidence that the state will prevail as the case moves through the higher courts.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick joined Gov. Greg Abbott at a Capitol press conference where Abbott, the state’s former attorney general who filed the suit before being sworn in as governor, said a key witness bolstering the state’s case was the president himself.

Obama’s policy, announced in November, would have made as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants — including some 1.46 million in Texas — eligible for a renewable work permit and temporary relief from deportation.

But on Monday, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Brownsville ruled that the president violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the way federal policies are crafted and how much public input is taken. Twenty-five other states have joined the lawsuit since December.