A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the enforcement of President Trump’s executive order that would allow state and local officials to opt out of accepting refugees — the latest judicial hurdle for the administration’s immigration policies. U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte agreed to issue the preliminary injunction, which had been requested by three faith-based national resettlement agencies: HIAS Inc., Church World Service Inc., and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. OMAR RESPONDS AFTER TEXAS USES TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER TO OPT OUT OF REFUGEE PROGRAMTrump issued the executive order in September saying that the federal government would only resettle refugees if states and local governments had consented to do so — giving states a de facto veto over whether they would resettle refugees. The government is expected to appeal the injunction order. “Making the resettlement of refugees wholly contingent upon the consents of State or Local Governments, as the veto component of the proposed Order would have it, thus raises four-square the very serious matter of federal pre-emption under the Constitution,” he wrote.

Source: Fox News January 15, 2020 18:25 UTC