Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has upped her criticism of President Barack Obama's immigration policy, pledging to fight the "imperial" president after a federal appeals court blocked the state's policy of denying driver's licenses to immigrants permitted to stay in the United States under the Obama administration's deferred action policy.
Her criticism is the latest in an ongoing series of tweets lambasting Obama on his immigration policy, particularly as the situation along the southern border has worsened. Brewer, a Republican who has had a frosty relationship with Obama for some time, has called the border chaos a "manufactured crisis the White House has caused and encouraged."
On July 7, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
issued a ruling seen as a victory for immigration advocates who filed a lawsuit in 2012 challenging Arizona's license policy, which was passed in response to Obama's executive decision allowing young illegal immigrants to live and work legally in the United States.
Brewer's anger stems in part from the fact that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was driving illegal immigrants from Texas into Arizona and leaving them at bus stations. It was only after Brewer filed a complaint that DHS began
finding the children housing.
In June,
Brewer ordered state officials to immediately transport federal supplies to temporary holding facilities in the southern Arizona town of Nogales where the conditions were deteriorating due to the influx of immigrant children.
On July 8, Obama back-stepped plans to take executive action to expedite the deportation process, but he did send a request to Congress for $3.7 billion in funding to pay for transportation, additional immigration lawyers and other health services,
CNN reports.