Bloomberg – by Laurel Brubaker Calkins
Lawyers for the federal government have been squirming for more than a year under the threat of punishment from a Texas judge who’s convinced they lied to him about President Obama’s immigration program. They may be uncomfortable a while longer.
When U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen in Brownsville blocked administration plans to shield more than 4 million undocumented immigrants from deportation and give them work permits, he extracted a promise from Justice Department attorneys — in person and in writing — that “nothing would happen” before his order took effect.
Hanen didn’t hide his fury when government officials issued about 100,000 work permits in spite of the department’s assurances. He accused the lawyers of being intentionally deceptive. One Justice Department attorney visibly shook during a hearing last year and hasn’t been back to Hanen’s courtroom. The judge also ordered the Justice Department to take several attorneys off the high-profile case, adding that he would yank their law licenses if it were up to him.
On Wednesday, the judge listened as a Justice Department lawyer told him attorneys on the case unintentionally provided bad information because they had either forgotten bureaucrats had begun issuing the work permits or didn’t think it was important to the main immigration reforms being challenged.
“First, we are sorry for the mistakes that we made that led to this situation,” James Gilligan told Hanen. “Sorry for leading this court to believe it had been misled. Sorry for the time and energy this issue has consumed.”
Trump Wall
The fight over immigration policy has been a key talking point in the presidential race, with Republican nominee Donald Trump arguing for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and demanding that Mexico pay for it. Wednesday’s court hearing coincided with Trump’s visit with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Trump said after their meeting that the two discussed the wall but not who would pay for it.
In May, when it appeared the U.S. Supreme Court would decide the immigration-plan challenge and Hanen’s role in the controversy was over, he ordered more than 3,000 Justice Department lawyers to take at least three hours of ethics training every year for five years. That mandatory class time would be required of any federal lawyer who practices in any of the 26 states that sued over Obama’s immigration initiative.
The Justice Department argued Hanen had overstepped his authority and pegged the cost of complying with his order at almost $8 million.
Gilligan told Hanen in court that the Justice Department will require all 1,000 of its civil division lawyers –- even senior management –- to complete an hour of customized ethics training within 120 days, “regardless of how this court rules” on the misconduct allegation.
‘Worthy Step’
“I greatly appreciate that,” Hanen replied. “It’s a worthy step.”
Hanen said he will issue a ruling later on whether Justice Department lawyers should face sanctions.
Hanen, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, had mocked government lawyers in his order for failing to demonstrate what he considered common sense. He illustrated his point by quoting scenes from a pair of Hollywood films, including one where a child tells a prosecutor, “Gosh, everybody knows you shouldn’t tell a lie, especially in court.”
“You’re telling a judge, ‘We can lie, cheat and steal, and you can’t do anything about it?’” Hanen asked Justice Department lawyers at a hearing in June, according to a transcript.
Hanen has said he’s sanctioned attorneys only twice in his 14 years on the bench, imposing a fine in one instance and requiring a letter of apology in the other. But as much as he dislikes punishing fellow attorneys, he said he can’t “do nothing,” as the administration has asked.
‘Magic Gavel’
“If you polled every judge in the world, they would say a judge is not doing his or her job if he allows unethical conduct to go on in their court,” Hanen told lawyers in June. “I wish there was a way we could wave a magic wand –- or maybe a magic gavel since I’m a judge –- and say, all right, let’s have a do-over. But there’s not.”
The deliberations over punishment for the lawyers comes before a trial on whether Obama has the power to carry out his immigration plan. The Supreme Court refused to overturn Hanen’s injunction in a 4-4 vote, but didn’t comment on it. The justices sent the case back for trial, which Hanen hasn’t scheduled.
The case is Texas v. U.S., 14-cv-00254, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Brownsville).
Currently, American tax payers pay $59.8 billion to educate Limited English Proficiency (LEP) public school students and an additional $43.8 billion to educate illegal aliens and their children. If we continue on this path, by 2018 we will need 82,408 more LEP teachers at a projected cost of an additional $6.3 billion.
Add it all up, and that’s over $66.1 billion paid by American taxpayers to educate limited English speaking students by 2018! It’s hurting the educational opportunities for all Americans.
FAIR has dug deep and is presenting this groundbreaking analysis in a new report, Failing Schools: What Every Parent and Taxpayer Must Know About Immigration and the Public Education Crisis.
Dan Stein, President
Federation for American Immigration Reform
TAKE YOUR INDOCTRINATION CENTER…ER…… “PUBLIC SCHOOL” ,AND SHOVE IT UP YER ASS DAN……………. STEIN?
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
I posted the information so people could see what the cost is. I certainly hope you didn’t miss the importance of that information.
I didn’t say I believed in the pubic school system. Both my child and grandchild were educated in private schools or home schooled (that’s what I think of the government school system).
” posted the information so people could see what the cost is. I certainly hope you didn’t miss the importance of that information”IM GONNA PULL A HILL ARY ON YOU HERE AND SAY “AT THIS POINT,WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?” THE TIME FOR WORDS IS ALMOST OVER. WE ARE ON THE THRESHOLD OF BRUTE FORCE “MR. STEIN”……………….
The DOJ’s claim that attorneys made mistakes, but did not intentionally mislead the court, is a lie! It is my misguided hope that the judge levels unprecedented sanctions against the scum. DOJ is out-of-control and needs a house cleaning.
THE “DOJ” IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND HAS NO RIGHT TO EXIST…………..
For those who have eyes to see, we understand the word games being used. We also understand the big picture=continue to murder the u.S. system that put our people first. Since the original 48 State peoples worked hard to make a strong Nation, which came to fruition. One relevant consideration these days is how Corporations have taken over. It’s all about the money. Like our servant gov’t employees originally were ‘given’ jobs to run the government, they were charged and restricted by the Constitution and The Bill of Rights. They understood that The Constitution was written to them as employees, and, the BOR (Bill of Rights) was a declaration written to define what Powers the people had which are all untouchable/unalienable. When the Scripture says-“you will know them by their fruit” what more need I say? Liars become Lawyers and Lawyers lie. Not one Alphabet agency operates an an official servant/Constitutional/BOR operation! One needs to realize that the FBI, ATF etc. etc. are private Corporations. Each has a Charter which gets it’s right to operate from the supposed still operating u.S. government in each State. Each Charter is required to delineate what they will be doing. Each can do less, but none can do more/overstep what the gov’t approves according to each Charter. Bottom line or maybe I should say at the top, The Jew Edomites are evil and have the money to buy what they want to happen. Like Soros-A Jew, as an example, he’s invovled in planning, moving people, inciting/training people to accost, terrorize, rob etc. to disrupt the peace. These people use people as a ‘flood’ as in Black lives Matter, and the Muslims. These minions aren’t passionate but paid off people who are doing what they do for money. It ain’t going to be over until we rise up and stop it. I don’t know when this will happen, but, it needs to.