Judge Hanen is not amused

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:

This, however, does not resolve the issue as to the approximately 2,000 individuals that were given various benefits in violation of this Court’s order after the injunction was issued. The Court was first apprised by the Government of the violations of its injunction on May 7, 2015. It admitted that it violated this Court’s injunction on at least 2,000 occasions—violations which have not yet been fixed. This Court has expressed its willingness to believe that these actions were accidentaland not done purposefully to violate this Court’s order. Nevertheless, it is shocked and surprised at the cavalier attitude the Government has taken with regard to its “efforts” to rectify this situation. The Government promised this Court on May 7, 2015, that “immediate steps” were being taken toremedy the violations of the injunction. [See Doc. No. 247]. Yet, as of June 23, 2015—some sixweeks after making that representation—the situation had not been rectified. With that in mind, theCourt hereby sets a hearing for August 19, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. Each individual Defendant must attend and be prepared to show why he or she should not be held in contempt of Court. In additionto the individual Defendants, the Government shall bring all relevant witnesses on this topic as the Court will not continue this matter to a later date. 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. That is unacceptable and,as far as the Government’s attorneys are concerned, completely unprofessional. To be clear, this Court expects the Government to be in full compliance with this Court’s injunction. Compliance as to just those aliens living in the Plaintiff States is not full compliance.

If the administration brings itself into compliance with the injunction and reports on the cause of its noncompliance to the court’s satisfaction, Judge Hanen will cancel the August 19 hearing. If not, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson has a date with destiny before the court in Brownsville on August 19, and he will have to do better than mumble this: “In my view, this type of situation highlights the importance of the direction where we are headed.”

Via Josh Blackman’s Blog and Chuck Ross/Daily Caller.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses