By Jeff Mason and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A judge in Texas has temporarily blocked President Barack Obama's orders to shield millions of people who are in the United States illegally from deportation, backing 26 states that argued Obama had overstepped his legal authority.
The White House said on Tuesday the Justice Department would appeal Monday's action by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, a city along the Texas border with Mexico.
Hanen has previously issued opinions critical of the Obama administration?s enforcement of immigration laws. An appeal of his preliminary injunction would go to the majority conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the administration will comply with the injunction and delay accepting applications for deportation relief that had been set to begin on Wednesday.
The judge issued his opinion amid a fight in the Republican-led U.S. Congress over legislation passed by the House of Representatives to allow funding for the Department of Homeland Security only if Obama's immigration actions were nullified. The department is charged with securing U.S. borders, airports and coastal waters.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats showed signs of backing down, especially with the court order being a preliminary one and a ruling on the merits of the states? lawsuit still ahead.
The judge hemmed in Obama's exertion of executive power on Nov. 20 that has drawn the ire of Republican elected officials who say he exceeded his constitutional authority.
"Judge Hanen's decision rightly stops the president's overreach in its tracks," said Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott, whose state spearheaded the lawsuit.
Obama's executive orders would let up to 4.7 million of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States stay without threat of deportation. It was aimed mainly at helping 4.4 million people whose children are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.
About 270,000 people would be able to stay under the expansion of a 2012 programme that offered deportation relief to people brought illegally to the United States as children, allowing them work. The expansion was scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
Obama's administration billed the moves as the biggest immigration policy shift since 1986 changes passed under President Ronald Reagan.
Immigration lawyers said many applicants for deportation relief under Obama?s order had already filed paperwork and the required $465 fee ahead of the beginning of the first stage of the executive action. They now must decide whether to withdraw their applications and be refunded, or continue in hopes the injunction is overturned.
Supporters of Obama?s immigration actions urged the Justice Department to seek an emergency stay to block the judge?s order.
Mexico?s Foreign Ministry lamented Monday's ruling, saying Obama's moves provided "a just migration solution for millions of families and could reinforce the significant contributions of Mexican migrants to the American economy and society."
Most of the illegal immigrants in the United States come from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
'A LIKELIHOOD OF SUCCESS'
The White House argues the executive action fell within Obama's presidential powers, but that the best solution is for Congress to pass meaningful immigration reform.
The judge wrote that the administration had not complied with procedures needed for putting into effect Obama's immigration moves, which he made after House Republicans blocked bipartisan immigration legislation passed by the Senate in 2013.
In his opinion, Hanen wrote that "the states have clearly proven a likelihood of success on the merits" of the case. Hanen wrote it was "disingenuous" for the administration to maintain Obama's actions merely "supplements and amends" current policy.
"It represents a massive change in immigration practise, and will have a significant effect on, not only illegally present immigrants, but also the nation's entire immigration scheme and the states who must bear the lion's share of its consequences," Hanen wrote.
Hanen previously issued an order in 2013 criticizing the federal government for not prosecuting a mother who had her 10-year-old daughter smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border. He also said taxpayers should not bear the burden of moving immigrant children around the United States to reunite them with relatives after they cross the border illegally.
Immigration is a potent political issue in the United States, as it is in many countries, and is sure to become an important topic in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Republicans argue that Obama often has overstepped his presidential authority in areas also including U.S.-Cuba policy and changes in his signature healthcare law.
But in pressing their bid to thwart Obama's moves on immigration, they risk further alienating Hispanic voters and being accused of interfering with counterterrorism efforts at an inopportune time by holding up money for security. Republicans say there will be no interruption in the homeland security agency's critical protective missions.
(Additional reporting by David Lawder, Julia Edwards, Susan Heavey and Mica Rosenberg; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Grant McCool)
