Obama Will Appeal Immigration Ruling

President Obama will appeal a federal appeals court ruling against his plan to shield around five million people living in the United States illegally from deportation. In a 2-1 decision, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a May injunction blocking the president’s immigration action. Republicans decried Obama’s plan as executive overreach while 26 states challenged the initiative in court. The Obama administration has argued it was within its rights to ask the Department of Homeland Security to defer deportation of certain groups of immigrants. The appeals court said it was denying the government’s appeal to stay the injunction “after determining that the appeal was unlikely to succeed on its merits.” An appeal to the Supreme Court is now the administration’s only option.