Judge in Texas blocks Obama's immigration plan

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, backing 26 states that argued Obama had overstepped his legal authority.

The White House said on Tuesday that the Department of Justice would appeal the 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 the judge’s temporary injunction would go to the majority conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

It was not immediately clear what impact Monday's injunction would have on the 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.

Hanen blocked the federal government from carrying out executive orders announced by Obama on Nov. 20. The judge hemmed in Obama's exertion of executive power 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 program 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 shift in American immigration policy since 1986 changes under President Ronald Reagan.

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.

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.

Hanen 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 family members after they cross the border illegally.

CONGRESSIONAL FIGHT

A senior House Republican aide said that Monday's injunction "could potentially help unstick the situation" over the homeland security funding, but it was too early to tell whether it would clear the way for the House to pass a "clean" spending bill free of immigration restrictions.

A senior Democratic congressional aide expressed skepticism that Republicans would take the injunction as a "way out," noting the judge's action may be overturned before the Feb. 27 deadline for funding the department.

Hanen found that the administration had not complied with the procedures needed for putting Obama's broad moves on immigration into effect. Obama issued his orders after House Republicans blocked bipartisan immigration reform legislation passed by the Senate in 2013.

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 that is already underway.

Following Hanen's order, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republicans in Congress, called on Democrats to allow passage of their homeland security bill in the Senate.

The White House said the Supreme Court and Congress had made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing immigration laws, "which is exactly what the president did when he announced commonsense policies to help fix our broken immigration system."

(Additional reporting by David Lawder and Susan Heavey; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Grant McCool)