ok it is 6/23 today. Any followup news?
I’ve looked and looked and I can’t find a ding! dang! thing!
And I was so hopefull too.
Found Something:
Feds face possible sanctions over immigrant work permits
BROWNSVILLE — A U.S. District Court judge ordered federal immigration authorities on Tuesday to rescind three-year work permits for 2,000 immigrants in the country illegally that had been issued in violation of his injunction.
“I expect you to resolve the 2,000; I’m shocked that you haven’t,” Judge Andrew Hanen told Justice Department lawyers at a hearing in Brownsville. “If they’re not resolved by July 31, I’m going to have to figure out what action to take.”
Hanen has mentioned possible sanctions against the government after he learned it had issued the work permits and deferrals from deporation for three years instead of two years, as had been the administration’s policy.
To fix the problem, the government said it would modify the terms from three years to two.
In February, Hanen temporarily halted President Barack Obama’s Nov. 20 executive action on immigration that would spare about 5 million immigrants from deportation and provide them with work authorizations.
At the hearing Tuesday, Justice Department attorneys apologized for a lapse in the deferred action program, which mistakenly gave the longer reprieves and work authorizations despite Hanen’s injunction.
Jennifer Ricketts, a Justice Department attorney, said the error occurred as the government was preparing its appeal on the temporary injunction to Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. As soon as the error was identified, corrective steps were set in motion, she said.
Of the 814 three-year permits and deferrals issued in error to immigrants living in one of the 26 states that sued the Obama administraton over its immigration plan, 793 have been fixed with the recipients and in the government’s immigration verification system, the attorneys said.
Angela Colmenero, a lawyer with the Texas Attorney General’s Office speaking for the plaintiff states, said Texas has not determined the financial harm the three-year permits may have caused.
Hanen appeared baffled the 2,000 erroneously issued permits were not yet straightened out, suggesting the slow progress has the appearance of possibly being deliberate.
Hanen urged government attorneys to move swiftly to correct the mistake or he would consider sanctions, an action he has taken only twice over the past 14 years, he said.
“How hard is it to correct your own computer system?” Hanen said. “How hard is it to change a three to a two?”
In early March, the Justice Department disclosed that before Hanen issued his injunction, the Homeland Security Department had granted 108,000 people three-year renewals of their deferred status, instead of two years.
Government attorneys apologized for the confusion then, even as Hanen questioned if he had been misled about whether a part of Obama’s immigration plan was indeed implemented.
During a March court hearing in Brownsville, an irritated Hanen contemplated sanctions but decided to allow the 26 states, led by Texas, to hammer out remedial steps.
In May, the federal government notified Hanen that Homeland Security had once again told him one thing and done another when it erroneously issued 2,000 more three-year work permits, this time a clear breach of the injunction.
Hanen acknowledged the 108,000 deportation reprieves issued before the injunction will take significantly longer to remedy.
“There’s no doubt with regards to the 2,000 that the government violated the injunction,” Hanen said.