Thread: Federal judge orders government to provide list of 3-year DACA recipients

Federal judge orders government to provide list of 3-year DACA recipients

By Aaron Nelsen
Updated 4:23 pm, Thursday, May 19, 2016

McALLEN — U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen on Thursday ordered the government to provide him with a list of people who were mistakenly given benefits under President Barack Obama’s 2014 plan to give millions of immigrants deportation reprieves and work permits.

In his 28-page opinion, peppered with dialogue from Hollywood movies, the Brownsville judge claims that Justice Department attorneys hid the issuance of three-year deferred action permits despite an injunction blocking the government initiative.

To remedy the err in judgment, the 26 states suing the administration should be provided an opportunity to seek relief from possible damage resulting from “the misconduct of the Defendants’ lawyers” and to prevent future harm to the plaintiff states “due to the Government’s misrepresentations,” Hanen wrote.

In addition, Hanen ordered that Justice Department attorneys who appears in a court in any of the 26 plaintiff states annually attend a legal ethics course.

“Throughout this case, the administration has struggled to provide accurate, reliable information regarding the scope of the President’s plan or even when it would be implemented,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a statement. “From the start, our lawsuit has been about asserting that one person cannot unilaterally change the law, and part of that is ensuring everyone abides by the rule of law.”

The Justice Department has acknowledged that more than 108,000 people received the three-year reprieves outlined in the new program guidelines before Hanen issued his initial injunction.

Hanen has given the Justice Department until June 10 to present him with a list that includes all personal information including names and addresses, along with the date the three-year renewal or approval was granted. The court may release the list or a portion to law enforcement authorities, Hanen wrote.

Hanen’s order comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in April heard arguments over Obama’s initiative to shield around 5 million of immigrants from deportation. A ruling is expected in June.

The 28-page order begins with a few lines of dialogue from a Hollywood movie on adherence to the rules of the Constitution, which Hanen argues is the essence of the lawsuit. Regarding candor, Hanen referenced the film Miracle on 34th Street

“The need to tell the truth, especially in court, was obvious to a fictional young Tommy Mara Jr. in 1947,” Hanen wrote. “Yet there are certain attorneys in the Justice Department who apparently have not received that message, or more likely have just decided they are above such trivial concepts.”

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Federal-judge-orders-government-to-provide-list-7738686.php

by LANA SHADWICK
19 May 2016

The Texas federal district court judge over the executive amnesty case slammed U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials on Thursday writing that their “conduct is certainly not worthy of any department whose name includes the word ‘Justice.'”

Judge Andrew Hanen, a federal district court judge in Brownsville, Texas, added, “Suffice it to say, the citizens of all fifty states, their counsel, the affected aliens and the judiciary all deserve better.”

On Thursday, the judge issued the 28-page memorandum opinion and order (attached below) and lambasted federal government officials for misleading the Court during the executive amnesty litigation.

The Judge issued an order that the federal government misled the Court and the plaintiff states in the amnesty case about when it would begin to implement the DAPA program and would amend the DACA program. The Court ordered the government to file by June 10th, a list of every individual, their names and addresses, of those who were granted these benefits.

Judge Hanen did not mince words and noted “the propriety of the Defendants’ actions now lies with the Supreme Court, but the question of how to deal with the conduct, or misconduct, of their counsel rests with this Court.” He added, “To that end, this Court neither takes joy nor finds satisfaction in the issuance of this Order.”

He noted that the DOJ “has now admitted making statements that clearly did not match the facts. It has admitted that the lawyers who made these statements had knowledge of the truth when they made these misstatements.” The DOJ provided only the explanation that its lawyers “lost focus” or that the “fact[s] receded in memory or awareness.”

Hanen said that the misrepresentations were made on “multiple occasions” and that the lawyers engaged in this behavior “starting with the very first hearing this Court held.”

Under a section entitled, “The Misconduct Involving the Implementation of the 2014 DHS Directive,” Judge Hanen writes:

In summary, this Court and opposing counsel were misled both in writing and in open court on multiple occasions as to when the Defendants would begin to implement the Secretary’s 2014 DHS Directive establishing the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (“DAPA”) program and amending the DACA program. Opposing counsel and this Court were assured that no action would be taken implementing the 2014 DHS Directive until February 18, 2015. Counsel for the Government made these assurances on the record on December 19, 2014, and in open court on January 15, 2015. Similar misrepresentations were made in pleadings filed on January 14, 2015, [Doc. No. 90 at 3] and even after the injunction issued, on February 23, 2015. [Doc. No. 150]. For example, on February 23, 2015, the Government lawyers wrote that: “DHS was to begin accepting requests for modified DACA on February 18, 2015.” [Doc. No. 150 at 7]. This representation was made despite the fact that in actuality the DHS had already granted or renewed over 100,000 modified DACA applications using the 2014 DHS Directive.

Thus, the lawyers for the federal government, orally on the record, and in writing in pleadings filed with the Court in the case, deceived Judge Hanen and the lawyers on the other side of the case. Specifically, they lied about when and if the government was implementing the executive amnesty order. Government lawyers said the program would not be implemented until February 18, 2015 but the federal government gave 100,000 illegal aliens temporary lawful status.

The judge writes, “Now, however, having studied the Government’s filings in this case, its admissions make one conclusion indisputably clear: the Justice Department lawyers knew the true facts and misrepresented those facts to the citizens of the 26 Plaintiff States, their lawyers and this Court on multiple occasions.”

The judge set out the misrepresentations verbatim and includes the dates they occurred. He chastises and appears to warn them when he writes that “The Rulebook” which guides their behavior is the “Rules of Discipline” that apply to lawyers. He cites the Disciplinary Rules by number, including the rules for “Candor Toward the Tribunal,” “Truthfulness in Statements to Others,” and the rule for “Misconduct” which would include a violation for candor and truthfulness. He concludes that the Government’s conduct has violated the rules governing lawyers.

In deciding what to do about the misconduct, Judge Hanen writes, “There is no doubt, however, that because the Government’s counsel breached the most basic ethical tenets, the Plaintiff States have been damaged and have given up a valuable legal right. Moreover, counsel for the Government should not be rewarded for their past misconduct.”

Judge Hanen gave the government until June 10 to comply with the following Order:

This Court hereby orders the Government to file a list of each of the individuals in each of the Plaintiff States given benefits (and whose benefits have not been withdrawn) under the 2014 DHS Directive contrary to its lawyers’ multiple representations. These are the individuals granted benefits during the period (November 20, 2014‒March 3, 2015) in which the attorneys for the Justice Department promised that no benefits were being conferred. This list should include all personal identifiers and locators including names, addresses, “A” file numbers and all available contact information, together with the date the three-year renewal or approval was granted. This list shall be separated by individual Plaintiff State. It should be filed in a sealed fashion.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading the 26-state coalition in the litigation, responded to the Judges’ Order saying, “Throughout this case, the administration has struggled to provide accurate, reliable information regarding the scope of the President’s plan or even when it would be implemented. From the start, our lawsuit has been about asserting that one person cannot unilaterally change the law, and part of that is ensuring everyone abides by the rule of law.”

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/...-word-justice/

MAY 20 2016, 5:52 PM ET
by BRIAN LATIMER

A federal judge who is demanding detailed identifying information of young immigrants who were caught up in a bureaucratic screwup is trying to intimidate the youths, immigrant advocates said Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Texas has ordered the Department of Justice to turn over the names of over 100,000 young immigrants who were granted three-year renewals of deferrals of deportation and work permits under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA. The three year renewals should have been for two years.

Hanen is the judge who blocked President Barack Obama's immigration executive action from being implemented, a decision now on appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In his 28-page order, Hanen demanded DOJ give him the names of the individuals granted DACA benefits between November 20, 2014 and March 3, 2015. Hanen said in his order the lists will be sealed, but he ordered DOJ to separate the information by state and send sealed copies would be handed over to states.

Hanen said the list should include "all personal identifiers," including name, address, all contact information and the date the three-year-renewal was granted. He also asked for "A" file numbers, an immigrant's invidual identifying number in the immigration records system.

The order gives the Department of Justice until June 10 to hand over the information. Hanen also ordered the Justice department's attorneys to attend ethics classes.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said in a news conference call that there is no legal justification for issuing the order and releasing the personal information of thousands of teenagers and young immigrants.

"We urge the Department of Justice to do what is necessary to protect the identities and privacy of Dreamers, whose lives could be severely impacted by this order," Hincapié said.

Hanen was not available for comment and his employees said they do not comment on ongoing cases.

Texas and 25 more states challenged President Barack Obama's immigration executive action shielding millions of immigrants from deportation and allowing them to work. Although Hanen blocked the programs from going forward, Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security, granted three-year deportation deferrals to 108,000 people when they renewed their DACA status.

The administration said last year the three-year deferrals and work permits were issued by mistake. Immigration officials have contacted recipients and gone to some of their homes to get them to replace their permits with two-year permits.

Immigration reform advocate and beneficiary Adrian Reyna, director of membership at United We Dream, said his sister is one of the people Hanen's order could affect. Reyna said he thinks the judge's order shows he may be too biased to work on the case.

"We are also calling on the Department of Justice to file a motion to remove Andrew Hanen from this case," Reyna said. "His extraordinary order proves that Judge Hanen has abandoned all impartiality in his political witch hunt against immigrants."

David Leopold, an immigration attorney, said the order "calls into question all the other decisions (Hanen) has made to date, yet another reason why the Supreme Court needs to step in and resolve this case."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/j...cklash-n577676

Texas judge order to 100,000 immigrants to hand over their personal details

May 23, 2016

It’s been repeatedly proven that government officials lie regularly to cover up wrongdoing and now a scathing federal court order blasting the Department of Justice (DOJ) and its army of lawyers offers details seldom seen by the public. In fact, the judge in this case appears to go out of his way to write something for the masses, not just the parties involved in the litigation.

The case involves a lawsuit filed by 26 states against the federal government challenging President Obama’s immigration amnesty measures. It was originally filed in the Southern District of Texas and the judge hearing the case, Andrew S. Hanen, issued a 28-page order last week slamming DOJ attorneys representing the administration for intentionally lying to the court, thus violating a multitude of ethics and court rules. Among other things Hanen admonishes DOJ lawyers for lying by claiming in court that the president’s amnesty plan featuring three-year deferrals wasn’t being implemented when in fact it was for more than 100,000 illegal aliens. The measure is officially known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the agency charged with implementing it.

In the order Hanen writes: “The Government admits that the lawyer making these statements knew at the time of this hearing that the DHS was already granting these three year extensions (which it also admits are only authorized by the 2014 DHS Directive) instead of the two-year renewals authorized in 2012. Not only did counsel fail to tell the Court that the DHS was already granting relief using the 2014 DHS Directive, she told the Court that nothing would happen with regard to revised DACA until mid-February of 2015.” The lashing continues. “Apparently, lawyers, somewhere in the halls of the Justice Department whose identities are unknown to this Court, decided unilaterally that the conduct of the DHS in granting three-year DACA renewals . . . was immaterial and irrelevant to this lawsuit and that the DOJ could therefore just ignore it. Then, for whatever reason, the Justice Department trial lawyers appearing in this Court chose not to tell the truth about this DHS activity. The first decision was certainly unsupportable, but the subsequent decision to hide it from the Court was unethical.”

Texas initiated the lawsuit in December 2014 challenging the president’s amnesty order and the other states eventually joined in. Judge Hanen ruled in favor of the states, essentially blocking the amnesty, and later discovered that the administration disregarded the order and government attorneys repeatedly lied about it in court. After Hanen’s reprimand became public, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said this: “Throughout this case, the administration has struggled to provide accurate, reliable information regarding the scope of the President’s plan or even when it would be implemented. From the start, our lawsuit has been about asserting that one person cannot unilaterally change the law, and part of that is ensuring everyone abides by the rule of law.

This kind of pubic scolding, especially from a federal court, is seldom seen while a president is still in office. The DOJ is supposed to defend the public’s best interest, not lie to cover up the president’s wrongdoing. An editorial in a mainstream newspaper points out that the misconduct unmasked by Judge Hanen should trouble Americans of all political persuasions. “Prosecutors often abuse their powers in run-of-the-mill cases,” the editorial states. “But this is a constitutional challenge with major consequences for the separation of powers, and the deceit must have required the participation and coordination of dozens of political appointees and career lawyers. That suggests a serious institutional failure, not mere rogue actors.” The piece refers to the DOJ’s systematic deception in court about the administration’s conduct an “ethics rot.”

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/20...obama-amnesty/

What is DACA? Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/c...-arrivals-daca

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferr...dhood_Arrivals