U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen has decided to excuse top DHS officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, from the August 19th court hearing concerning the issuance of executive amnesty work permits in violation of his injunction. However, the Justice Department lawyers will still have to answer for why the problem has not yet been completely resolved.
Judge Hanen threatened to force top DHS officials to personally appear in court after it was discovered that over 2,000 work permits were released in violation of the Feb. 17, 2015 injunction. Homeland Security officials found three sets of three-year amnesty permits that were issued after the injunction. The first set totaled around 2,100, the second was about 500, and the last set, just discovered in late July, included about 50 permits.
In an effort to preempt the hearing, Homeland Security rushed to retrieve the permits by the July 31 deadline Judge Hanen issued. To date all 2,600 permits from the first two sets have been recovered or destroyed, except 11 cases where the illegal aliens refused to return the permits.
In response their DACA status and work permits have been terminated though no effort has been made to deport them now that they have returned to full illegal status. Homeland Security is currently working on finding the last set of 50 permits.
While this effort seems to have appeased Hanen enough to stop contempt charges he still wants to hold the DHS department accountable for this error. "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," Judge Hanen wrote in his order Tuesday.
Read More on this story at The Washington Times.
