The Washington Times reports that Department of Justice attorneys informed a federal judge that USCIS issued 2,000 three-year work permits under the extended version of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty after the judge’s Feb. 16 injunction. Administration attorneys were already in jeopardy of possible sanctions for deceiving the judge regarding the issuance of 100,000 applications under the 2012 DACA amnesty prior to the injunction.
Late Thursday night, Justice attorneys filed documents with Texas federal District Court Judge Andrew Hanen admitting that USCIS had approved about 2,000 three-year work permits. President Obama promised to hand out work authorizations lasting three years under the extended version of DACA announced last November. Work permits under the 2012 DACA program had a two-year duration.
The filed documents apologized for the mistake and said officials are trying to ascertain why applications were still processed after Judge Hanen issued an injunction in February. Administration attorneys said they would provide the judge more information by May 15. In the meantime, USCIS will try to revoke the three-year permits and reissue them as two-year permits.
Administration officials had told the judge, and informed Congress under oath, that all application processing had ceased after the February injunction. The issuance of three-year permits is a direct violation of that injunction.
Read more in The Washington Times.
