A federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration, giving a coalition of 26 States time to pursue a lawsuit that aims to permanently stop the orders. US District Judge Andrew Hanen’s decision comes after a hearing in Brownsville, Texas, in January. It puts on hold Obama’s orders that could spare as many as five million people who are in the US illegally from deportation.
The Federal Government is expected to appeal the ruling to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Neither the White House nor the Justice Department had any immediate comment early on Tuesday. The first of Obama’s orders to expand a programme that protects young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the US illegally as children was set to start taking effect from Wednesday.