When President Obama issued his executive orders on immigration — shielding from deportation upwards of 4 million people here illegally and allowing them to apply for work permits — all sides recognized one fact: It would be irreversible once it went into effect, which would effectively render moot any complaints.
Texas Federal Judge Andrew Hanen recognized this too: “The genie would be impossible to put back in the bottle,” he says.
On Monday he issued a temporary stay blocking the president from carrying out his orders until the courts resolve a lawsuit brought by 26 state attorneys general.
In short, the judge is saying to the president: Not so fast!
This is a good thing. At the heart of these executive orders is what Judge Hanen calls a “disingenuous” argument by the president: that he is exercising prosecutorial discretion when he’s in fact doing what his own Justice Department made clear he can’t — unilaterally rewriting the law.
Judge Hanen was being polite when he called this path disingenuous. Once again the president has opted for the easy order over the hard work of legislation.
Even worse, he has further poisoned chances for what America needs: a bipartisan immigration reform that welcomes to this nation people of talent and ability.
Judge Hanen’s stay is no guarantee the president will lose the lawsuit the states have brought against him, or even that the stay won’t be lifted.
Still, it’s nice to see a judge remind this former teacher of constitutional law that when he says he issued his executive orders “to change the law,” he’s just undermined his own case.