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.”
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