In brief: U.S. appeals immigration ruling

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department has urged a federal appeals court to lift a temporary hold a judge placed on President Barack Obama’s immigration executive action.

The 69-page brief was filed Monday with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ahead of arguments scheduled for next month.

Lawyers for the federal government are challenging a preliminary injunction issued in February by a federal judge in Texas. That decision placed on hold an executive action that could spare from deportation as many as 5 million people who are in the U.S. illegally.

In the new court filing, Justice Department lawyers said the federal government has unique authority to enforce the nation’s immigration laws and to exercise discretion during the deportation process.

A court hearing has been set for April 17.

Arizona won’t shield officers’ names

PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed legislation Monday requiring law enforcement agencies to keep the names of officers involved in shootings secret for two months, nixing a bill that was inspired by last year’s events in Ferguson, Missouri, and similar incidents around the country.

Ducey said in a lengthy veto letter that he sympathized with backers who sought to protect officers. But he said he listened most to police chiefs who told him that an arbitrary hold on releasing the names of officers would limit their ability to manage complex community-police relations.

Legislatures around the nation are taking up various pieces of police shooting legislation, including proposals requiring police to wear body cameras or mandating that shooting investigations be done by outside agencies. But Arizona is apparently the only state considering new rules for releasing the names of officers, said Ezekiel Edwards, director of the Criminal Law Reform Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ducey, a Republican, faced pressure to veto the measure from police chiefs, who worried they couldn’t manage community relations or stop unfounded rumors about an involved officer.

Police unions, however, supported the bill, saying the required two-month delay will give time for investigations to play out. They call it a common-sense measure that will ensure officer safety.

Church van crashes, killing eight

FORT PIERCE, Fla. – The congregants of a close-knit Haitian church gathered Monday around Nicolas Alexis, hoping to learn what happened to 18 friends and loved ones who had been expected to return that morning from a late Palm Sunday service.

Alexis described how he frantically tried to check who was alive after their overloaded church van crashed in the darkness in rural southwest Florida.

The crash early Monday in Glades County, about 60 miles from the Fort Pierce church, killed eight people. Alexis, the church’s pastor and eight others were injured.

The van crashed after the driver apparently missed a stop sign at an unlit T-intersection surrounded by farmland, sending the vehicle across four lanes and plunging through tall grasses into a shallow canal.

Obama heading to Kenya as president

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will make his first trip as president to Kenya, the country of his father’s birth.

The White House said Obama will visit Kenya in July for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which brings together business leaders, international organizations and governments. This will be the first time the summit takes place in sub-Saharan Africa.

Obama visited Kenya as a U.S. senator, but never as president. During a trip to other African countries last year, he said he was likely to visit Kenya before leaving the White House.

The president’s father came to the United States from Kenya for school and returned to his home country after his son’s birth. The elder Obama died more than 30 years ago, though the president has other family still living in Kenya.