State Accuses Obama Administration of Misleading Judge
Attorneys for the state of Texas say the federal government jumped the gun on starting President Obama's controversial executive order on immigration, then misled a federal judge about it. Thursday, they asked a federal court to grant them quick access to more details on what happened.
On February 16, Brownsville-based U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen temporarily halted the president’s executive action on immigration that was announced in November. The first phase of the program, an expanded version of 2012’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, was set to begin on February 18. The expanded DACA that Hanen halted included three provisions: removing the age cap of 31 years, moving up the date by which applicants needed to be in the country from June 2007 to January 2010, and granting three-year work permits and reprieves from deportation instead of the original two-year term.
In their request for early discovery filed on Thursday, the state’s attorneys argue that in discussions with the court leading up to Hanen’s decision, the Obama administration said it would not begin accepting applications for the program until February. But in an advisory filed on Tuesday by the White House’s own attorneys, they stated that between November 24 and February 16, the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services granted about 100,000 three-year deferred action requests.
The state argues that the administration misled the court.
Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/05/state-leaders-say-obama-administration-may-have-mi/
