President Barack Obama's executive deportation action may have already hit a road block, as the lawsuit filed in Brownsville, Texas by the states challenging the president's amnesty was assigned to Judge Andrew S. Hanen, a vocal opponent of past administration immigration efforts, The Washington Times reported.
Last year, Hanen, a Bush appointee, called the Department of Homeland Security's immigration policy "dangerous and unconscionable," saying that the "DHS should cease telling the citizens of the United States that it is enforcing our border security laws because it is clearly not. Even worse, it is helping those who violate these laws," according to the National Review.
Hanen was referring to the mass influx of immigrant children that the Obama administration sent to live with their illegal immigrant parents inside of the U.S., rather than attempting to deport those parents.
While Hanen said he didn't take a "position on the topic of immigration reform," he did say he was appalled at the "failure by the DHS to enforce current United States law," and that the government was wasting money by refusing to deport illegal aliens, according to the Times.
Now, with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot leading the charge, those 20 states challenging Obama's new immigration action were lucky enough to have their case landed with Hanen.
While speaking to NBC's "Meet the Press" this weekend, Abbot said, "It's the Constitution itself that is under assault by the president of the United States by this executive order. This lawsuit is not about immigration. The issue in this lawsuit is abuse of executive power."
Last week, three additional states joined onto the already 17-strong suit filed against the United States of America; Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson; the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, R. Gil Kerlikowske; Deputy Chief of U.S. Border Patrol, Ronald D. Vitiello; Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Winkowski; and Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, León Rodríguez.
