Did A Federal Court Just Doom The GOP's Big Immigration Lawsuit Against Obama?

WASHINGTON — A ruling this week by a federal appeals court signals bad news for Republican-led lawsuits seeking to stop President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration, immigration law experts say.

"I think this is very good news for the government," Jonathan Weinberg, an expert on immigration law at Wayne State University, told TPM.

A three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously dismissed a lawsuit by Mississippi against Obama's 2012 program to protect young people brought to the U.S. illegally from the threat of deportation. Two Republican appointees and one Democratic appointee said the state lacks "standing" to sue because it did not prove it was injured by the program.

Three immigration law experts say the ruling sets a precedent that could undermine a separate major challenge to Obama's more recent and more controversial program to help up to 5 million more undocumented immigrants, most of them parents of American citizens. That program is being challenged by Texas and 25 other states on similar grounds; it was halted by a federal trial court in Texas and the Obama administration is appealing the decision to the same appeals court, the 5th Circuit, that decided the Mississippi case this week.

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