Back in February, a federal judge in Texas enjoined the Obama Administration from rolling out its immigration overhaul via executive action. In the injunction, the court said that the Administration could not claim prosecutorial discretion (as it applies to illegal aliens covered under the proposed amnesty) because their plan confers benefits on those aliens not currently available under law. Instead, the court said that the Administration was effectively changing the law.
Earlier this month, the same court that issued the injunction demanded that DoJ attorneys respond to allegations that the Administration was going ahead with its plans by granting expanded DACA benefits to more than 100,000 illegal aliens. Administration lawyers had asked the court to reconsider its decision to enjoin the executive amnesty, but the court refused to do so pending a hearing on the DACA issue.
That hearing happened this past week, and by all accounts, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen—the same judge who handled the injunction—was not amused by what he heard (emphasis mine):
U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen, visibly annoyed, confronted a U.S. deputy assistant attorney general over previous government assurances on the timing of the program.He asked why he shouldn’t grant a discovery request for internal federal immigration documents — a request filed Thursday by 26 states that are suing over Obama’s executive actions on immigration.At a one-hour hearing in Brownsville, Hanen gave the Justice Department 48 hours to file a motion in response. He said he would then rule promptly on whether to require the government to produce documents concerning applications under Obama’s deferred action program.The judge said that if he decided to impose sanctions, “the taxpayers of the [26] states would end up paying their own damages.”Hanen’s barbed comments left little doubt that he sympathized with lawyers for the 26 states, who said they suffered “irreparable harm” when federal officials granted more than 100,000 applications for deferred action after Obama announced the program Nov. 20. He said government lawyers had assured him that “nothing was happening” regarding the applications.
DoJ attorney Kathleen Hartnett attempted to convince the judge that any “confusion” was “inadvertent”:
Hanen said Justice Department lawyers had assured him at a previous hearing that the administration had not begun implementing the deferred-action plan, designed to protect qualified immigrants from deportation for three years.“Like the judge, the states thought nothing was happening,” Hanen said with exasperation. “Like an idiot, I believed that.”Deputy Asst. U.S. Atty. Gen. Kathleen R. Hartnett told the judge: “I would like to apologize for any confusion.” She added moments later: “We had no intent to withhold any of this material from the court.”Hartnett said lawyers immediately notified the court when they realized “we may have inadvertently caused confusion.” Hanen corrected her, asking, “So you waited three weeks to tell me you were doing it?”
Not even the judges believe what this Administration is selling—and now we have documented proof from this hearing that they’re either completely incompetent, or trying to sneak elements of Obama’s executive order in under the noses of both the states, and the federal courts.
Hanen will soon rule on a motion from the States that would allow discovery requests aimed at finding out just how far the Administration went to grant amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants.
You can read the full transcript of this week’s hearing here.
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