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Judge Hanen has ordered all DOJ attorneys appearing in any federal court of the 26 affected states to attend three hour mandatory ethics classes, this year and every year, for a period of five years. In addition Judge Hanen has given Loretta Lynch 60 days to file a written response outlining what specific corrective action she is personally taking to ensure all DOJ attorneys are truthful and honest: DOJ lawyers attend ethics class. DOJ provide a list of every name, address, and location of each DAPA recipient who was granted unlawful immunity. Attorney General to deliver a corrective plan within...

A federal district judge on Thursday excoriated U.S. Department of Justice lawyers who are defending the Obama administration's immigration plan, issuing an extraordinary order that questioned the department's policing of attorney ethics and ordered certain government lawyers to take an annual ethics class.

A federal judge ordered the Justice Department to send its lawyers back to remedial ethics classes Thursday after finding that the administration repeatedly misled the court in the high-profile challenge to President Obama’s deportation amnesty. In a scathing 28-page ruling, Judge Andrew S. Hanen said the lawyers knew the administration was approving amnesty applications but actively hid that information from the court and from the 26 states that had sued to stop the amnesty. Judge Hanen thought about tossing all of the government’s arguments out, but said since the merits of the case are now pending before the Supreme Court,...

The main front in the legal war over President Barack Obama's immigration policies may have moved to the Supreme Court, but a federal judge in Texas isn't letting that stop him from taking up a curious side issue in the case: whether birther Orly Taitz and controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio are entitled to join the fight. Both sides in the lawsuit that halted Obama's latest round of immigration moves nearly a year ago have told U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen they want the case put on ice until the Supreme Court announces whether it will take up the major...

A recently leaked internal DHS memorandum has revealed that the Obama administration is planning to circumvent U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen's February 16 injunction that blocked President Obama's executive action to grant amnesty to four million illegal aliens. The contents of the memo were made public in a report published by the Washington, D.C.-based The Hill on November 2. After Judge Hanen issued his injunction, the Obama administration appealed his decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, but that court decided on May 25 to let the judge's decision stand. Hanen's ruling was...

In immigration litigation pitting Texas and 25 other states against the Obama administration, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a memorandum arguing that U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen should not impose punitive sanctions against the federal government. Nor should Hanen, who sits in Brownsville, reduce from three years to two the time allowed on work permits that the federal government already has issued to some 108,000 immigrants, DOJ lawyers argue. In the memorandum, the DOJ lawyers write that punitive sanctions would not be justified as a response to their previous "unintentional miscommunication" to Hanen about the federal government's flawed...

In immigration litigation pitting Texas and 25 other plaintiff states against the Obama administration, a friend of the court brief filed on Sept. 16 opposes the states' request for sanctions imposed on the federal government. The brief labels Texas and the other states' request as nothing more than a "stealth" attempt to get 108,000 work permits that the federal government issued to immigrants "clawed back." The friends of the court who filed the brief are identified only as Jane Doe 1, 2 and 3. They are represented by O'Melveny & Myers, DLA Piper and the Mexican American Legal Defense and...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The Obama administration scrambled to satisfy a Texas judge it shouldn't be punished for violating his order freezing an executive action to loosen immigration rules. At a hearing Wednesday in federal court in Brownsville, government lawyers repeatedly apologized to U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen for mistakenly issuing 2,600 work permits after his order, and then making misleading statements on their compliance. Hanen froze the program after 26 states sued. "We apologize for those miscommunications and regret them,'" James Gilligan, a Justice Department attorney, told Hanen. "They were inadvertent and unintended." "But they were repeated," said Hanen. Gilligan...

The government has once again violated a federal court’s injunction prohibiting the implementation of President Obama’s executive amnesty plan. The action comes right before high-ranking federal government officials, including the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have been ordered to appear in an August hearing to show why they should not be held in contempt for prior failures to comply with the injunction.

July 17, 2015Judge Hanen Forces DHS To Go Door-To-Door Collecting Illegally Granted Work Authorizations…by sundance Judge Andrew Hanen has given Jeh Johnson and the Department of Homeland Security until the end of this month to recapture all of the illegally distributed “amnesty and work authorization” permits the DHS allowed during the time they ignored the judges’ order. “The government has conceded that it has directly violated this court’s order in its May 7, 2015 advisory, yet, as of today, two months have passed since the advisory and it has not remediated its own violative behavior,” the judge wrote. “That is...

Goosed into action by an angry federal judge, federal immigration authorities will go door-to-door demanding illegal immigrants return the three-year amnesty approvals the Obama administration issued to them in defiance of a court order. Those who don’t return their three-year permits will have them terminated at the end of this month, the National Immigrant Justice Center, one of the advocacy groups briefed on authorities’ plan, said in a statement preparing immigrants for what could be a traumatic encounter. The move comes as Homeland Security officials, fed up with slow-walking by illegal immigrants, are finally playing hardball after months of less...

President Barack Obama appears likely to lose – again – in the protracted legal fight over his executive actions on immigration. Two of the three appeals court judges who heard oral arguments Friday on the Obama administration’s immigration programs were skeptical about the legal merits of the directive, which could halt deportations for more than 4 million immigrants here illegally who have family ties in the United States The chilly reception from the three-judge panel in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on whether Obama had legal authority to take such action seems to indicate that a lower court decision...

Federal District Judge Andrew Hanen has entered a preliminary injunction preventing the implementation of President Obama’s post-election amnesty order. Since entry of the injunction, Judge Hanen has been apprised of certain misrepresentations regarding the status of Obama’s order. The parties are in the process of working out an agreement to resolve discovery issues and report to the court regarding those misrepresentations. In an order entered yesterday (posted online here), Judge Hanen pursues a related issue:

President Obama’s lawyers admitted to a federal judge late Thursday that they had broken the court’s injunction halting the administration’s new deportation amnesty, issuing thousands of work permits even after Judge Andrew S. Hanen had ordered the program stopped. The stunning admission, filed just before midnight in Texas, where the case is being heard, is the latest misstep for the administration’s lawyers, who are facing possible sanctions by Judge Hanen for their continued problems in arguing the case. The Justice Department lawyers said Homeland Security, which is the defendant in the case, told them Wednesday that an immigration agency had...

The Obama administration blamed a technology glitch for why it continued to approve new amnesty applications in February, even after a federal judge issued an injunction, telling the court late Friday that they are now begging about 2,000 illegal immigrants to tear up their three-year work authorizations. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Homeland Security agency that approved the deportation amnesty applications for Dreamers despite the judge’s order, insisted it’s corrected the immigrants’ records at headquarters, but said it’s also asking the immigrants themselves to send back their three-year documents and accept two-year papers instead. The agency also told Judge...

HOUSTON (AP) -- A federal judge in Texas has threatened to hold Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and other top immigration enforcement officials in contempt of court for not fixing problems that led to work permits being mistakenly awarded under President Barack Obama's executive immigration action after the judge had put the plan on hold. The Justice Department had said about 2,000 individuals had been sent three-year work authorizations after U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, temporarily blocked the immigration action on Feb. 16. In a court order Tuesday, Hanen said government officials have yet to fix the...

A federal judge up in arms about non-compliance with a court order blocking President Barack Obama's recent executive actions on immigration is demanding that Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and four other top immigration enforcement officials appear in a Brownsville, Texas, courtroom next month to explain why they should not be held in contempt of court. U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen issued an order Tuesday afternoon requring the five officials to show up for a hearing Aug. 19. However, the judge also said he would cancel the session if he's "satisifed" with the government's actions to limit or revoke...

Judge Says Federal Officials Must Personally Appear In Court For Violating Amnesty Injunction Chuck Ross 12:32 AM 07/08/2015 A federal judge in the district court of South Texas has ordered top officials with the Department of Homeland Security — including Secretary Jeh Johnson — to appear in person in his court in Brownsville next month to show why they should not be held in contempt for violating an injunction issued against President Obama’s executive amnesty order. Andrew Hanen issued the rare order on Tuesday in the latest court filing for a lawsuit filed to halt President Obama’s executive amnesty order....

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...

Although oral arguments are scheduled in New Orleans in Texas v. United States for July 10, things are still cooking in Brownsville. Judge Hannen will hold a hearing on 6/23: The Court will hold a hearing on all pending matters on June 23, 2015 at 10:30 a.m. The parties have indicated a willingness to meet and confer on certain discovery/remedial action matters. The Court certainly encourages that course of action but requests that it occur prior to this hearing.