DOJ Invokes Separation-of-Powers Over Amnesty

(CNSNews.com) - The Justice Department, in an "emergency motion" filed on Thursday, asked a federal appeals court to suspend a lower court's injunction "interfering with immigration enforcement."

The injunction, imposed last month by a U.S. District Court in Texas at the behest of 26 states, "offends basic separation-of-powers and federalism principles and impinges on core Executive functions," DOJ argued.

"The lower court's order is unprecedented and wrong," said the Justice Department's request for an emergency stay, filed with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.

"The Constitution does not entitle States to intrude into the uniquely federal domain of immigration enforcement. Yet the district court has taken the extraordinary step of allowing a State to override the United States’ exercise of its enforcement discretion in the immigration laws."

Critics of President Obama's executive amnesty have used the same separation-of-powers argument against the president. They note that the Constitution does not allow the president to make immigration law.

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