Advertisement

Department of Justice blasts judge's immigration decision; says DOJ lawyers didn't lie

By Allen Cone
President Barack Obama addresses a heckler while discussing his immigration police in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 21, 2014. Justice Department lawyers are appealing a directive from a circuit court judge accusing them of lying about deferring deportation of more than 100,000 illegal immigrants. Photo by Jim Ruymen./UPI
President Barack Obama addresses a heckler while discussing his immigration police in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 21, 2014. Justice Department lawyers are appealing a directive from a circuit court judge accusing them of lying about deferring deportation of more than 100,000 illegal immigrants. Photo by Jim Ruymen./UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, May 31 (UPI) -- The Department of Justice on Tuesday responded harshly to a federal district judge's accusations that government lawyers deceived him in a case involving President Barack Obama's executive orders on immigration.

Government lawyers argued that additional ethics training for 3,000 Department of Justice attorneys that was ordered by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen "far exceed the bounds of appropriate remedies."

Advertisement

The lawyers said disclosing personal information by June 10 on 50,000 illegal immigrants who qualified for protective status as parents of American-born children would represent an "unprecedented breach" of trust.

RELATED The issues: Presidential candidates worlds apart on immigration policy

In his 28-page ruling on May 20, Judge Hanen, of the Southern District of Texas, said the lawyers deceived the court by saying they didn't act on the 2014 Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents when "over 100,000 three-year deferred action renewals" were being processed.

Calling it a "serious" calculated plan of unethical conduct, Hanen ordered any justice lawyer wanting to appear in any of the 28 states that are suing the federal government over President Barack Obama's immigration policy to attend a three-hour legal ethics course.

Advertisement

"Clearly there seems to be a lack of knowledge about or adherence to the duties of professional responsibility in the halls of the Justice Department," he wrote.

In a 12-page filing, DOJ lawyers wrote that Hanen's conclusion is wrong, and that they intend to appeal the order.

The U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether the the administration's 2014 immigration policy deferring deportation of illegal immigrants whose children were born in the United States is constitutional.

"The Department of Justice takes with utmost seriousness the public trust committed to it to represent the interests of the American people in the courts of the United States, and insists that its attorneys adhere to the high standards of ethical conduct and professionalism required to carry out that critical mission," department lawyers wrote.

They also argued that they would be producing sensitive personal information about illegal immigrants.

"First, the order risks injury to tens of thousands of third parties who were brought to this country as children,'' the government argued. "The urgency of providing private information about these 50,000 individuals is also unexplained. ... In addition to the injury to these persons risked by the disclosure of their sensitive personal information, requiring the United States to produce that information to the court and potentially to the states would deter aliens from providing the government with personal information that is critical to the administration and enforcement of immigration laws in any number of circumstances.''

Advertisement

And regarding the ethics course, they said it could cost the department $1.5 million.

Latest Headlines