Free Republic

A federal judge for the second time found the DACA program unlawful, but held back from ordering the deportation of the nearly 600,000 people who remain in the country as “Dreamers.” The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, first crafted with a 2012 memo under the Obama administration, was likewise found unlawful by federal District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in a similar ruling in 2021. “While sympathetic to the predicament of DACA recipients and their families, this Court has expressed its concerns about the legality of the program for some time,” Hanen wrote in the 40-page ruling. “The solution for...

A federal appeals court on Wednesday said the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy violates U.S. immigration law, dealing a blow to an Obama-era program that provides deportation protection and work permits to nearly 600,000 immigrant "Dreamers" who lack legal status. A three-judge panel for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded the Obama administration did not have the legal authority to create DACA in 2012, affirming a July 2021 ruling from a federal judge in Texas who barred the Biden administration from enrolling new immigrants in the decade-old program. Despite its conclusion, the appeals court did not order...

Texas law barring state contractors from boycotting Israel violates firm’s free speech, federal judge rules Texas is one of more than two dozen states with laws that seek to limit boycotts, divestments and sanctions of Israel over its treatment of Palestine.Texas can’t forbid an engineering firm from boycotting Israel as part of its contract with Houston City Hall, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen on Friday stopped short of fully blocking a state law that prohibits government agencies from doing business with certain companies that boycott Israel. But his ruling said the free speech rights...

A Texas federal judge on Friday ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama-era policy that shields certain illegal immigrants from being deported, is unlawful and blocked new applications from being filed. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen argued that the policy goes against the Constitution because Congress never provided the executive branch authorization to grant deportation reprieves to illegal immigrants in the United States. DACA, which was established in 2012 by President Barack Obama’s administration, has granted an estimated 800,000 individuals protection. After arguing that the Department of Homeland Security violated the Administrative Procedure Act, Hanen ruled...

On Friday, a federal judge in Texas blocked an Obama-era program protecting undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children from deportation, halting the program’s ability to accept new applicants and once again throwing the lives of more than 600,000 people into tumult.In his 77-page opinion, district court Judge Andrew Hanen concluded that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, is unlawful because it violates the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs federal rulemaking, by evading the normal “notice and comment” process in adopting new rules.Hanen’s decision doesn’t immediately affect the 616,030 people, often known as DREAMers, who...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Texas on Friday declared illegal the federal program that has allowed nearly 800,000 young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children avoid deportation and remain in the country. U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, said the Obama administration failed to follow federal administrative rules in launching the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012. But he put the effect of most of his ruling on hold while the case is appealed.

HOUSTON — Harris County's drive-thru votes will not be thrown out, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled on Monday morning. It was a waiting game over the weekend for the fate of nearly 127,000 votes cast at drive-thru polling locations in the Houston area during early voting. A federal hearing was scheduled for Monday morning to rule on those votes with less than 24 hours until the polls open for Election Day. A conference call was set up for reporters to be able to listen in to what's being discussed at the federal courthouse, but many reported technical issues as...

I can’t speak highly enough of Judge Andrew Hanen. He stood alone in the gap, steadfast, against the entire weaponized Obama DOJ and White House apparatus… Backstory HERE – and HERE – and HERE – and HERE After a three-year-long Mexican standoff – today Judge Hanen rears righteously back in his chair, launches a well-chewed batch of tobaccy into the spittoon next to the swinging doors of the saloon, and deliberately says ‘git out‘…. The twitchy DOJ lawyers stumble all over themselves as they clamor desperately backwards for the exit. [page 7] Nevertheless, two important factors have arisen since the...

The White House lost on its fight over Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration when the Supreme Court had nine members, and it won’t get a second chance with the eight remaining. ... the high court denied a rehearing request in US et al v Texas et al, the biggest fight between Washington and the states on enforcement of immigration statutes: The Supreme Court refused Monday to reconsider President Obama’s proposed overhaul of the nation’s immigration system following a tie vote in June that blocked its implementation. The eight-member court’s order shut the door on a plan that already seemed...

“Fearless Four” respond to judge’s demand for their personal data with amicus brief LOS ANGELES — Four young immigrants whose private information was ordered disclosed by a federal judge in U.S. v. Texas filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case today, arguing that the judge’s order violates their constitutional right to privacy, runs contrary to precedent, and is unjustified. The group, known as the Fearless Four, includes Juan Escalante of Florida, Angelica Villalobos of Oklahoma, and two others who filed anonymously. They are just a few in a group of about 50,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients who...

Dealing a major blow to President Obama’s controversial executive immigration order, the U.S. Supreme Court announced Thursday it had failed to produce a majority opinion on the policy — meaning that the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ November 2015 decision rejecting the policy stands. The program had been blocked in February 2015 by a Brownsville-based federal judge, Andrew Hanen, days before it was scheduled to begin. In a one-sentence opinion, the Supreme Court declared, "The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court." The ruling was immediately hailed by conservatives across the country.

Clearing the way for the Supreme Court to rule on immigration policy without a distraction, a federal trial judge in Texas on Tuesday postponed a sweeping order that had added controversial new requirements for the federal government in carrying out the policy. U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Brownsville delayed all facets of his broad May 19 order until August 22, when he will hold a status conference. Some lawyers involved in challenges to the Hanen ruling had vowed to go to the Supreme Court promptly if the judge or a federal appeals court had not acted to delay...

MALDEF has issued the following press release in connection with the latest developments in the district court in Texas v. United States: in TexasBROWNSVILLE, TX – MALDEF was in United States District court today seeking to stop the federal government’s release of personal information on ten of thousands of young immigrants. In addition, yesterday MALDEF filed papers in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans seeking to block the order of Judge Andrew Hanen requiring the United States to turn over to him the names, addresses and other personal information of approximately 50,000 immigrant youth who received three–year...

U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen – the Brownsville federal judge who halted President Barack Obama’s 2014 executive action on immigration – has permitted a stay of the Court’s order that would have required the Department of Homeland Security to produce a list of tens of thousands of immigrants who benefited prematurely from the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) policy. Hanen has given the Department of Justice until Aug. 22 to produce evidence showing that he was not deliberately misled by the administration’s attorneys regarding when the government would begin accepting applications for DAPA...

Texas Judge Andrew Hanen previously sanctioned the DOJ for lying to him several times in his courtroom. His sanctions had three basic elements: DOJ lawyers attend ethics class annually for a period of five years. DOJ provide a list of every name, address, and location of each of the 100,000+ DAPA recipients who was granted unlawful immunity. Attorney General Lynch to deliver a corrective plan within 60 days. (link) The DOJ freaked out and requested a hearing to discuss. The hearing is tomorrow: The Obama administration accused a federal judge Tuesday of sowing “fear and confusion” among illegal immigrants, potentially...

Strongly disputing a federal judge’s power to issue a sweeping order to punish the government over ethical issues in the hard-fought case over federal immigration policy, the Obama administration began moving swiftly on Tuesday to block that order. It asked the judge to put the issue on hold, and promised an immediate appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The department argued on Tuesday that the part of his order forcing the government to hand over personal information about youths who had benefited from one of the changes in policy would affect about 50,000 individuals, and...

The Justice Department moved Tuesday to fight a federal judge’s order that its lawyers undergo mandatory ethics training, digging in after the DOJ was accused of misleading the courts over President Obama's immigration executive actions. In filings Tuesday, the department said the order would "far exceed the bounds of appropriate remedies" and would cost the department millions. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, of Texas, had issued the order earlier this month, after alleging DOJ attorneys misled him about the implementation of Obama’s executive orders on illegal immigrants.

The Justice Department fired back at the Texas judge who ordered its attorneys to undertake ethics classes after finding they misled the court in a high-profile challenge to President Obama’s deportation amnesty — saying the order was beyond the judge’s authority and would cost millions to implement. In a motion filed Tuesday asking for a stay of the order, in which U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen said DOJ attorneys were “intentionally deceptive,” government attorneys outlined their objections to both the training requirements and his requirement that by June 10 the Department of Homeland Security turn over identifying information for 50,000...

Homeland Security has discovered more three-year amnesty applications it approved in defiance of a federal judge’s firm injunction, lawyers told the court late Wednesday — less than a week after the judge delivered a vicious spanking to the administration for repeatedly bungling the case. Leon Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said as they were preparing for their latest update to the court, they discovered three more three-year amnesties they had sent out, after Judge Andrew Hanen had ordered them not to. Mr. Rodriguez blamed “human error” and said the permits, known specifically as employment authorization documents or...

A federal judge has ordered annual ethics classes for Justice Department attorneys as a punishment for being "intentionally deceptive" during litigation over President Obama's executive immigration orders. "Such conduct is certainly not worthy of any department whose name includes the word 'Justice,'" U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen wrote in a withering order released Thursday. Justice Department attorneys misled the court about when the Department of Homeland Security would begin implementing President Obama's executive order granting "deferred action" to illegal immigrants whose children are citizens. In doing so, they tricked the 26 states who filed a lawsuit into "foregoing a request...