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WASHINGTON (AP) —
The Obama administration will ask the Supreme Court to save the president's plan to shield as many as 5 million immigrants living in the country illegally from deportation, after lower courts blocked it.
A federal appeals court in New Orleans on Monday upheld a Texas-based federal judge's injunction against President Barack Obama's plan. Obama has issued executive orders to protect from deportation parents whose children are citizens or legal permanent residents, along with other immigrants who came to the country illegally as children.
The Justice Department said Tuesday it disagrees with the 2-1 ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and would appeal to the high court.
Republicans have criticized the plan as illegal executive overreach since Obama announced it last November. Twenty-six states challenged the plan in court.
The administration argued that the executive branch was within its rights in deciding to defer deportation of selected groups of immigrants, including children who were brought to the U.S. illegally.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praised the ruling.
"President Obama should abandon his lawless executive amnesty program and start enforcing the law today," Abbott said in a news release.
"We strongly disagree with the 5th Circuit's decision," the White House said in a statement. "The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws."
The ruling further dims prospects of implementation of the executive action before Obama leaves office in 2017. Appeals over the injunction could take months and, depending on how the case unfolds, it could go back to the Texas federal court for more proceedings.
Justice Department spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement that the department "remains committed to taking steps that will resolve the immigration litigation as quickly as possible" so that the Department of Homeland Security can prioritize "the removal of the worst offenders, not people who have long ties to the United States and who are raising American children."
Part of the initiative included expansion of a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, protecting young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. The other major part, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, would extend deportation protections to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the country for years.
The 70-page majority opinion by Judge Jerry Smith, joined by Jennifer Walker Elrod, rejected administration arguments that the district judge abused his discretion with a nationwide order and that the states lacked standing to challenge Obama's executive orders.
They acknowledged an argument that an adverse ruling would discourage potential beneficiaries of the plan from cooperating with law enforcement authorities or paying taxes. "But those are burdens that Congress knowingly created, and it is not our place to second-guess those decisions," Smith wrote.
In a 53-page dissent, Judge Carolyn Dineen King said the administration was within the law, casting the decision to defer action on some deportations as "quintessential exercises of prosecutorial discretion," and noting that the Department of Homeland Security has limited resources.
"Although there are approximately 11.3 million removable aliens in this country today, for the last several years Congress has provided the Department of Homeland Security with only enough resources to remove approximately 400,000 of those aliens per year," King wrote.
PHOENIX (AP) —
Arizona lawmakers who hoped to build miles of fencing along the border with Mexico using millions of dollars in private money are pulling the plug nearly five years later after the state received just a fraction of the donations needed.
They plan to instead distribute the money to a sheriff's office along the border.
Republican backers of the 2011 legislation hoped for as much as $50 million in private money for the project, which called for building 15-foot fences at busy border-crossing points, then erecting other fences along miles of the state's 375-mile border that had no federal fences.
Instead, the state received about $265,000.
The effort began during the height of Arizona's battle against illegal immigration, before a backlash that led to state Senate President Russell Pearce's recall from office and curbed the GOP-led Legislature's appetite for measures targeting immigration.
On Monday, lawmakers, sheriff's and state department heads who serve on the Legislature's border security advisory committee will meet to hear spending proposals for the donations.
They've asked sheriffs in Cochise, Pima, Yuma and Santa Cruz counties to present plans for the cash related to border security.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada appreciates the offer but says he won't participate because it's one-time money and there's not enough cash to have an effect.
"I know it's a lot of money," Estrada said. "But when you're talking about a fence, either virtual or wherever, and then obviously if it's a virtual fence we'd have to maintain whatever it is."
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels is seeking nearly $220,000 to buy thermal imaging equipment, binoculars, GPS equipment and other gear for his border security and ranch patrol teams. He sent a proposal to the Legislature seeking the funds last month.
His letter praised the efforts of the U.S. Border Patrol to add technology and fencing to the border but said when migrants or smugglers do make it across, law enforcement agencies need to be equipped to respond.
"The leadership of this agency is very enthusiastic about the border fence program and believes that the additional equipment requested will only enhance the existing fence, virtual and physical, the United States Border Patrol has established," Dannels wrote.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department says it didn't make a proposal and won't attend the meeting. Yuma County sheriff's officials also did not apply.
State Sen. Steve Smith, who championed the 2011 bill, said the donations can be used only for border security measures.
"It's going to be probably a two-pronged approach — what can we do immediately with this amount of money and what would be a long-term solution with the money," Smith said Friday. "But I'm going to guess a lot of it will be virtual."
Estimates for the first mile of fencing approached $2.8 million.
The state launched a website in 2011 to collect money for the fence project, and Smith championed the effort. In December of that year, the state had more than $250,000, but donations dried up.
Smith, a Republican from the community of Maricopa, about 40 miles south of Phoenix, said he's not discouraged by the lack of fundraising.
"We just went on the circuit for a while and told people what we were doing — we raised a quarter-million right out of the chute," Smith said. "My notion was and always is, let's start a pilot project and hopefully shame the federal government into doing their job."
SAN DIEGO (AP) —
SeaWorld will end its orca shows at its San Diego park by 2017, its top executive said Monday, saying customers at the location have made clear they prefer killer whales acting more naturally rather than doing tricks.
CEO Joel Manby told investors that the park — where the iconic shows of killer whales doing flips and other stunts debuted decades ago — will offer a different kind of orca experience focusing on the animal's natural setting and its behaviors, starting in 2017.
Animal rights activists called the move a marketing gimmick and want the company to phase out holding whales in captivity at all.
The Orlando, Florida-based company has seen revenue drop since the 2013 release of the documentary "Blackfish" that examined how orcas respond to captivity, particularly in the case of Tilikum, a killer whale that caused trainer Dawn Brancheau's 2010 death by pulling her into a pool at SeaWorld Orlando.
Attendance has dropped the most at its San Diego location, and the decision to end such shows would be limited for now to that park, the original home of Shamu. Shows at its other parks, including in San Antonio and Orlando, will continue.
"The theatrical production of the show in that market is what they wanted to see less of," Manby said of San Diego's customers. "But it's not universal across our properties."
Manby told investors that the new killer whale attraction will "have a strong conservation message."
"They want the orca experience to be activities the whales do in the wild," Manby said of California customers. "Things they perceive as tricks, they don't like as well."
The Shamu stadium that hosted its killer whale shows were the park's main draw in the 1970s and helped build SeaWorld as a top attraction. Trainers would ride the whales in the giant pool before getting out and signaling for the orca to slap its tail in the water to splash spectators in a "splash zone."
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the move does not go far enough and urged investment in whale sanctuaries.
"An end to SeaWorld's tawdry circus-style shows is inevitable and necessary, but it's captivity that denies these far-ranging orcas everything that is natural and important to them," PETA's Jared Goodman said. "This move is like no longer whipping lions in a circus act but keeping them locked inside cages for life."
The news came days after SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. reported that its third-quarter earnings missed Wall Street expectations.
SeaWorld earlier this year announced plans for a $100 million expansion of the San Diego park's killer whale tanks to boost attendance, but Manby indicated to investors it may shelve that project now.
The California Coastal Commission endorsed the plans last month on the condition SeaWorld agree to stop breeding orcas in captivity and not transfer or sell them.
The company has said it plans to challenge that decision in court. Manby said Monday that the company had no other choice because the ruling set a "bad precedent" for not only SeaWorld but all zoos, aquariums and other animal parks.
"We certainly know with the regulatory environment out there that happened with orcas, and some of what happened in California, with the reputation out there, I think we would be foolish if we didn't look at other options, in case that happens," Manby said.
He added that SeaWorld may be able to achieve its objective, which he did not specify, without proceeding with the tank expansion project, called "Blue World."
Manby also announced that the company is considering adding hotels at several of its locations to attract overnight visitors, starting with San Diego. SeaWorld has reached an agreement with a San Diego-based hotelier to look at building a theme resort on its park property, though they are just in the exploratory phase.