Judge Refuses To Dismiss States' Immigration Action Challenge, Even After DACA End

Judge Refuses To Dismiss States' Immigration Action Challenge, Even After DACA End Announced

US District Judge Andrew Hanen has been a harsh critic of DACA and DAPA. But, even after President Trump announced he was ending them and states asked to end the case against them, Hanen refused — citing what he said was a procedural error in the states' filing.

Posted on September 8, 2017, at 3:30 p.m.
[IMG]https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2017-04/26/1/user_images/buzzfeed-prod-fastlane-03/chrisgeidner-v2-27553-1493183959-1_large.jpg?downsize=1100:*&output-format=auto&output-quality=auto[/IMG]

Chris Geidner
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Reporting From Washington, DC

The federal judge hearing the lawsuit brought by Texas and others states against President Obama's 2014 immigration executive actions issued an order Friday refusing to allow the case to be dismissed — a move the states themselves requested.

The unusual order was just the latest twist from US District Judge Andrew Hanen, the federal judge overseeing the case. Hanen has been a harsh critic of Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in the 2014 executive order. He also notably ordered Justice Department lawyers to take ethics training during the course of the litigation.

The ruling keeps the case alive for now, although it was not immediately clear whether the order would have any long-term effect beyond requiring the states either to file a "different form of dismissal motion" or appeal his ruling.

A spokesperson for the Texas Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the states' next steps.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced an end to DAPA and the expanded DACA program, but said the original DACA program would continue. In response, some of the states involved in the suit over the 2014 actions, led by Texas, threatened to amend the lawsuit to sue the Trump administration over the original 2012 DACA order if Trump did not announce an end to it by Sept. 5.

After the president and Department of Homeland Security announced that they are rescinding the initial 2012 DACA program on Sept. 5, however, the states filed a "notice of voluntary dismissal" in the case later that same day.

"Given these memoranda rescinding the DAPA program and phasing out the DACA and Expanded DACA programs, Plaintiffs file this notice voluntarily dismissing this action," the notice stated.

Although the dismissal is to be effective without a further court order under the federal rule noted by the states, Hanen issued the Friday order to announce his holding that the states could not, procedurally, file such a notice.

Finding the rule cited by the state "to be inapplicable" given the "lengthy history of protracted litigation on the merits" and intervention ordered of a party by the courts, Hanen wrote that he "holds the States’ Notice of Dismissal to be ineffective."

Hanen went on to note that the order did not "presage" a ruling "should a different form of dismissal motion be filed," however, suggesting the parties to "file such a motion" including "a proposed order" — suggesting a portion of the federal rules that would require the court to approve the dismissal.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidne...gration-action

Judge rebuffs red states' effort to drop suit against Obama immigration actions.

By JOSH GERSTEIN
09/08/2017 05:43 PM EDT
Updated 09/08/2017 06:08 PM EDT

The federal judge who ruled in favor of red states to block President Barack Obama’s 2014 round of executive actions on immigration has rebuffed an effort by those same states to drop their litigation.

Judge Andrew Hanen, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, issued an order Friday rejecting a notice that Texas and 25 states filed Tuesday seeking to dismiss the lawsuit they brought over Obama’s never-implemented Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, or DAPA. The program is intended to offer quasilegal status and work permits to illegal-immigrant parents of U.S. citizens and legal residents.

Some of those Republican-led states were considering using the suit as a vehicle to challenge the similar, better-known program for foreigners who entered the United States as children — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

However, those states backed down Tuesday after the Trump administration announced plans to wind down the DACA program starting in March.

Hanen’s decision doesn’t pose any immediate legal threat to the DACA program, and he didn’t rule out dismissing the pending case, which revolves around a set of executive actions that were never put into effect because of the litigation. However, he said a brief dismissal notice was not the right mechanism to dispose of a case that has been pending for nearly three years and traveled all the way to the Supreme Court.

“It is not appropriate in a case which has had the extensive and hard-fought clashes over the merits that this one has,” Hanen wrote.

“When the merits have been joined, and an injunction issued and affirmed on appeal twice, dismissal by notice is not appropriate. This Order does not presage any ultimate ruling should a different form of dismissal motion be filed.”

Lawyers for the red states suggested the dismissal procedure was appropriate because no formal answer to the suit had been filed by the federal government, but the judge disagreed, saying that “to hold otherwise would be to elevate form over substance and place undue emphasis on the title of a pleading rather than its substance.”

Spokespeople for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the judge’s order.

At least two lawsuits have already been filed in other courts over President Donald Trump’s decision to end the DACA program. A group of 15 blue states and the District of Columbia filed suit Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, and the University of California filed suit Friday in federal court in Northern California.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-...lawsuit-242507