As the end-of-month deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security looms and the Obama administration takes on a Texas judge’s ruling to temporarily halt President Obama’s historic executive action, the president himself is weighing in on the mess. "My administration will fight this ruling with every tool at our disposal," Obama wrote in an op-ed for The Hill, "and I have full confidence that these actions will ultimately be upheld."

On Monday, the Obama administration asked U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen to lift his ruling temporarily halting the implementation of Obama’s executive action program to offer an estimated 4 million undocumented immigrants short-term protection from deportation. The Obama administration says it plans to appeal Hanen’s ruling, arguing that the 26 states who challenged Obama’s executive action have no right to interfere with the federal government’s immigration enforcement plans. Hanen’s ruling last week disrupted the planned February 18 rollout of the first phase of Obama’s executive action, which would have allowed an expanded class of undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to apply for temporary work permits and deportation deferrals. 

"I am confident that all the steps I’ve taken on my own to fix our broken immigration system will eventually be implemented," Obama wrote, also taking time to chastise Republicans for what he called their "irresponsible threats" to withhold funding of the Department of Homeland Security so long as such funding also goes to the implementation of Obama’s immigration policies.