The Obama administration on Friday will face an uphill battle as it attempts to convince a panel of judges to allow the president's executive actions on immigration to be enacted,
The Hill reported.
Three federal judges will hear arguments at the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Two of the Republican-appointed judges have previously ruled against lifting the hold on President Barack Obama's immigration actions, and experts expect an unfavorable ruling for the administration.
"It's likely to be a similar result," Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, told The Hill. "It's unlikely that [the two judges] will change their views."
The orders, which were announced in November, would protect as many as 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation. Texas and 25 other states challenged the plan in federal court and a preliminary injunction had been granted in February.
In a May ruling, the panel rejected an emergency request from the Department of Justice to allow the actions to proceed, and the two conservative judges said that federal government is unlikely to succeed in its appeal.
While the administration is expected to suffer another setback on Friday, the fight is expected to go on and could end up at the Supreme Court, which could rule on the case as late as June 2016.
But even if the White House ultimately prevails, it would have just months before the end of Obama's term to achieve implementation. If the administration loses, Obama will have been prevented from delivering on a promise he gave to Latino groups during the 2014 midterm elections.
Members of labor unions and immigrant rights groups are planning a rally outside the courthouse and a news conference is planned after the hearing. However, a ruling is not expected to be handed down immediately.
"The two judges were convinced that Texas was likely to prevail on the merits," Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law, who helped file a legal brief backing the lawsuit against Obama's programs, told The Hill.
But the White House struck an optimistic tone.
"The administration continues to have a lot of confidence in the power of [our] legal arguments," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday, according to The Hill.
Meanwhile, House Republicans introduced a bill this week that would strip funding for the initiatives if they do take effect, The Hill reported.
"It is inconsistent with the law," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said during a recent interview, according to The Hill. "What Barack Obama is doing is what dictators in other nations have done."
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