Obama’s executive amnesty fiasco seems to get messier by the week.
In early May, the DOJ filed a document disclosing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, (USCIS) had “erroneously” issued 2,000 work permits were issued despite the temporary injunction prohibiting their dispersal.
“The government sincerely regrets these circumstances and is taking prompt corrective steps, while gathering additional information about these issues, including how these errors occurred,” wrote the DOJ.
Yesterday, Texas accused the Justice Department of running interference for the Department of Homeland Security who flubbed Obama’s executive amnesty edict. Lead by Texas’ Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas requested proof that executive amnesty has in fact, halted.
“In today’s filing with the federal district court, the states argued for increased oversight of the administration’s compliance with the court’s injunction, and for the opportunity to look into whether the defendants should be sanctioned for their misrepresentations to the court,” said a statement from Paxton’s office.
According to Paxton, “the newly-revealed admission that even more expanded work permits were granted to 2,000 illegal immigrants raises serious questions about the Obama Administration’s reliability moving forward. Increased oversight is needed to hold the federal government accountable for its apparent inability to report accurate information to the court.”
The filing alleges the “bureaucracy—so large and complex that not even Defendants have a full grasp of what their machinery is doing.”
Paxton’s filing essentially makes two specific claims. That the administration’s:
“The facts regarding Defendants’ compliance seem to be constantly evolving,” wrote Paxton. “From injunction compliance (March 3 advisory), to 55 recipients of three-year terms after the injunction (disclosed at the March 19 hearing), and now 72 recipients of such terms after the injunction plus “approximately” 2,000 more—with Defendants still “refin[ing]” their understanding through “ongoing” efforts (May 7 advisory and supplemental declarations). And this is in addition to more than 108,000 pre-injunction beneficiaries of the Directive.”
Judge Hanen hasn’t commented on the “erroneously” issued permits, reports the Washington Times, “but was nonplussed with the initial admission, and demanded to know who in the administration had been part of the decision-making. The Justice Department has turned those names and other documents related to the botched rollout over to Judge Hanen, but have asked him not to look at the documents, saying they are protected by privileges.”
The Obama administration has been decidedly opaque about the May 7 “accidental” issuance of work permits. “The district judge has already granted Texas’ request to compel the federal government to produce documents revealing who was involved in its misrepresentations over the issuance of expanded work permits. The Obama Administration, however, withheld virtually all of those documents from the states,” said Paxton’s office.
Texas is joined by 25 other states seeking to stop the President’s executive amnesty order.
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