Many government lawyers worked hard last week to convince court judges to give permission to President Obama to go ahead with sweeping initiatives to protect immigrants in the country who have come in illegally. But the series of judges’ questions do not seem to make it very likely that the initiative programs undertaken by the President would start any time before the last months of his term, if at all.

A panel of judges of the Court of Appeals in the United States heard the arguments in a lawsuit by Texas and 25 other states; they challenged the executive actions of the President that would be giving temporary relaxations to over four million immigrants from deportation. What’s more, they would also be permitted to work. In February this year the programs were blocked by a federal district judge in the state of Texas. Two months later, the administration’s emergency request to cancel the order was denied by a panel of the Fifth Circuit.

Even more serious legal trouble was faced by the administration when it came to the Federal district judge of Texas. Officials of the government were criticized by him for failing to inform him that more than 100,000 deferrals with extended 3 year terms had been issued by them under the President’s programs to young immigrants. This was done before the injunction was imposed.