Jeh Johnson won't have to testify in immigration case

Politico

By Seung Min Kim

August 11, 2015

Jeh Johnson won't have to testify in immigration case 

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson won’t be getting dragged into court after all in a contentious legal case involving President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen had threatened to haul Johnson and other top Obama administration officials into court to explain why the feds continued to issue work permits this year for certain immigrants here illegally – documents that were barred by Hanen’s injunction in February that put Obama’s controversial executive actions on hold.

But since Hanen’s initial warning, the Obama administration has taken dramatic steps to comply with the federal judge’s demands to stop issuing the permits and to revoke the documents that had been mistakenly handed out. Apparently that was enough to let Johnson off the hook from having to appear before Hanen in his Brownsville, Texas, courtroom, according to an order from the judge filed Tuesday.

“The court releases all individual defendants from its earlier order requiring mandatory attendance,” Hanen wrote in his order. “Nevertheless, the court remains concern[ed] about the individuals that still possess credentials issued in violation of the court’s injunction.”

Hanen made it clear that he was still insisting on an explanation from government lawyers on how the documentation snafus occurred at an Aug. 19 hearing, writing: “The court does not consider mere substantial compliance, after an order has been in place for six months, to be acceptable and neither should counsel.”

The problems with the work permits, part of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for so-called Dreamers, has been a secondary storyline to the broader legal fight surrounding Obama’s immigration actions.

In a court filing earlier this month, the Obama administration detailed their aggressive push to retrieve the mistakenly issued documents. They mailed letters, blasted emails, sent text messages, and even made in-person visits to undocumented immigrants who had been issued these work permits

Twenty-two people who have these work permits never surfaced or replied to government officials, so their “deferred action status” – which shields them from being deported and gives them the ability to work legally – was cut off, the administration said.

But the filing also detailed yet another bureaucratic snafu. Leon Rodriguez, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said his agency only “recently” determined that another 50 work permits that should not have been issued under Hanen’s injunction had been mailed out.

DACA, which was first announced in 2012, was expanded as part of Obama’s November 2014 executive actions on immigration. The president also announced a separate program that would grant protection from deportation and work permits for undocumented parents of children who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

But more than two dozen states, led by Texas, sued the administration over his executive actions, arguing that Obama does not have the authority to grant such benefits – which could affect more than 4 million immigrants here illegally. The broader legal case is currently tied up in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but many observers expect it to eventually land at the Supreme Court.

Aside from Johnson, other top Obama administration officials who had initially been ordered to court by Hanen included U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Leon Rodriguez, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldana, Border Patrol Deputy Chief Ronald Vitiello and Customs and Border Patrol Director Gil Kerlikowske.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com