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By:
JOSH GERSTEIN , POLITICO | |||||||||
| Posted:
Jun,04-2016 14:39:53
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| The Justice Department and four immigrants are asking a federal appeals court to overturn a judge's order demanding a slew of personal information about roughly 50,000 people who received quasilegal status and work permits under an executive action program President Barack Obama set up in 2012. Lawyers for the immigrants and the Obama Administration are using an unusual legal mechanism to challenge the order that U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen issued last month imposing sanctions on Justice Department lawyers for what he found were misrepresentations to the court in a lawsuit in which 26 states were challenging Obama's latest round of immigration-related executive actions. One provision in the judge's order gives the federal government until next Friday to submit data on about 50,000 immigrants who were granted three-year work permits after, Hanen contends, government lawyers assured him such permits were not being issued. The judge said he might allow states to obtain the data on their residents if the states have grounds for such a request. The legal filings are the 5th CIrcuit Court of Appeals Friday are "petitions for mandamus," an extraordinary remedy that can be requested when a conventional appeal is not available. "The production of sensitive personally identifying information for approximately 50,000 individuals for the purpose of potential further transmission to plaintiffs would entail unrecoupable administrative expense, undermine the confidence of individuals in the preservation of confidential information submitted to [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] for specified purposes, and, if dissemination is permitted, expose these individuals to an irremediable invasion of their privacy," Justice Department lawyers wrote intheir submission. "Judge Hanen unduly punishes immigrant youth by requiring the Department of Justice to provide the court with the names, addresses and all other identifying information from tens of thousands of young immigrants," said Karen Tumlin of the National Immigration Law Center, one of the groups who filedthe petitionFriday. "The outrageous demand of Judge Hanen has unfairly and unnecessarily dragged a group of blameless individuals into this politically-driven lawsuit.... These immigrant young people should not be caught in the political maneuvering of this case." A spokeswoman for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading the case against the Obama administration, declined to comment Friday. Speaking to reporters on a conference call Friday, two of the immigrants said they feared the personal information Hanen has ordered be turned over could be used to harass or persecute them. "If Judge Hanen's order is honored, everyone may have to think twice before submitting personal information to the government agency," said Angelica Villalobos, 31, an Oklahoma resident and recipient of quasilegal status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program or DACA. "What he's doing is wrong; we are standing up to defend our community...I tell Judge Hanen: The four of us won't stand for your hate." The showdown over Hanen's order on the immigrants' information comes as the underlying lawsuit is before the Supreme Court, with a decision expected before the end of June. Last February, the judge halted an expansion of the DACA program as well as the launch of a new program for illegal immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens or green-card holders. Critics have slammed Obama over the moves, arguing that he exceeded executive authority and essentially rewrote immigration law. One particularly unusual aspect of the petition the immigrants filed Friday is that they not yet asked Hanen to modify his order, a request that is usually made before heading to the appeals court. Lawyers for the immigrants said Friday that they are going straight to the 5th Circuit because of the looming deadline Hanen set and because they aren't parties to the underlying case, which is in federal district court in Brownsville, Texas. "There's just not enough time to get relief in any other way," said Omar Jadwat of the American Civil Liberties Union. Anemergency stay motion also filed Fridayasks the 5th Circuit to rule by Wednesday and suggests an application to the Supreme Court is possible if the appeals court refuses to act by then. States may already be aware of some of the information Hanen ordered filed with the court, since many deferred action recipients showed their work permits to state officials in order to get driver's licenses. One of the petitioners, Florida resident Juan Escalante, acknowledged he did just that. However, he said the information he gave to the Department of Homeland Security was far more extensive than what's printed on his work permit. "There was a lot of information attached to my original petitions, plenty of information about my personal life outside of just my birthday, city of residence and my full name," Escalante said. Jadwat said circulating that information could invite a variety of problems. "We're talking about identity theft in a box," he said. "Nobody should be put at risk like this. ... Judge Hanen's order violates our petitioners' constitutional right to privacy in their personal information." The Justice Department petition also objects to other aspects of the judge's sanctions order, including a requirement that Justice lawyers practicing in the 26 states party to the suit take special ethics classes for the next five years. "The district court reached far beyond its authority here and dictated the scope and content of ethical and professional responsibility training for thousands of attorneys if they appear in any federal or state court in the 26 plaintiff States," Justice Department attorneys wrote in Friday's submission. "These extraordinary measures imposed by the district court transgress the constitutional separation of powers and usurp the Attorney General's statutory authority to manage the Department and set policy for ethics training and enforcement and to determine which attorneys may represent the United States in litigation throughout the nation." The Justice Department has asked Hanen to stay his order while an appeal goes forward. He has set a hearing for Tuesday on that request. | |||||||||
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Source:
Politico
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