NEW YORK — Responding to Texas’s request for an injunction in its challenge of the policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Justice Department asked that if one is issued, it be delayed, although it agreed with the state and several others who claim “that DACA is unlawful.’’
The federal government is being sued by Texas and six other states to dismantle the immigration policy, which was put in place by the Obama administration in 2012.
It enables individuals who were brought to the United States illegally as children to remain in the country without fear of deportation and grants them work permits.
The Justice Department’s resistance to Texas’ request is purely circumstantial: If ordered, the government argues, such an injunction would conflict with separate nationwide injunctions that have already been issued by courts in California and New York, and subject the agency to “inconsistent obligations.’’
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose tenure as the nation’s top law enforcement official has been broadly defined by his pursuit of immigration restrictions, remains deeply opposed to DACA.
The lawsuit, which was filed last month, asserts that the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas has the authority to “immediately rescind and cancel all DACA permits currently in existence because they are unlawful.’’
It also asks that the court block the United States “from issuing or renewing DACA permits in the future, effectively phasing out the program within two years.’’
In the event that the court does grant the injunction, the Justice Department requested that the order be stayed for two weeks to allow it to seek emergency relief of the other injunctions. “A stay would facilitate the orderly resolution of the litigation over the DACA policy,’’ it said in its response.
Daniel M. Kowalski, an immigration lawyer, said early Saturday that the department’s filing highlighted the fact that only Congress is capable of achieving a meaningful solution to the current impasse.
“Immigration policy made by court rulings, agency memos, and executive orders is not adequate to the task at hand,’’ he said.
House Republican negotiators are reviewing an outline of a potential immigration compromise that would offer a means for young undocumented immigrants to become US citizens and provide billions for Trump’s border wall, the Washington Post reported
GOP leaders are under pressure to produce legislation in the coming days that could pass the House and avoid an election-year showdown pitting conservatives against moderates on the divisive issue.
The outline was developed late Thursday after its concepts were discussed in a closed-door conference meeting of all House Republicans. Leaders of the conservative and moderate GOP blocs met Friday to examine the framework and emerged saying that citizenship was still an obstacle but that talks would continue.
Representative Carlos Curbelo, a Republican from Florida, a moderate involved in the negotiations, put chances of a deal at ‘‘50-50.’’
‘‘It’s delicate,’’ he told The Post. ‘‘It’s obviously a highly divisive issue in the House Republican Conference, so we’re staying sober. But we’re as close as we've ever been.’’
Immigration has split the House GOP, with conservatives aligned with Trump’s hard-line stance at odds with moderates intent on protecting young undocumented immigrants, known as Dreamers, who arrived in the United States as children and are now at risk of deportation because of the president’s cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The moderates have gathered signatures on a ‘‘discharge petition’’ that would force votes on bipartisan bills that most Republicans oppose. GOP leaders are scrambling to prevent the petition from being completed on Tuesday, which would set a debate for June 25.
Parts of the two-page outline were sketched out to reporters Friday by Curbelo, who filed the discharge petition, and confirmed by other lawmakers and aides familiar with the talks.
It includes border security measures, including $25 billion for a border wall and cuts to legal immigration programs alongside a permanent fix for the Dreamers.
Aides said the outline does not include provisions dealing with employer verification of work authorization or a guest worker program for the agricultural sector.
Those had emerged as major sticking points in a more conservative bill drafted earlier this year by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia, and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas.
