Feds ask appeals court to restart amnesty

The Obama administration on Monday filed both an appeal and a request for an immediate stay of last week’s court ruling halting the president’s deportation amnesty, arguing that if it can’t grant illegal immigrants work permits and Social Security numbers it cannot enforce other laws properly.

Both moves were expected after the Feb. 16 ruling by Judge Andrew S. Hanen, which stopped the amnesty just two days before the first applications were expected to be filed.

In court papers Monday, Justice Department and Homeland Security officials insisted that illegal immigrants will be denied benefits if they cannot immediately apply for the deportation amnesty, which grants a three-year tentative lawful status, work permits, Social Security numbers, travel rights and the right to a driver’s license to as many as 4 million illegal immigrants.

“The balance of hardships tips decidedly in favor of a stay,” Joyce R. Branda, acting assistant attorney general, said in the filing.