Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a legal request for a wider probe into the Obama administration's admission that it had allowed some 100,000 illegal immigrants to obtain extended amnesty documents early.
"In an apparent attempt to quickly execute President [Barack] Obama’s unlawful, unconstitutional amnesty plan, the Obama Administration appears to have already been issuing expanded work permits, in direct contradiction to what they told a federal judge previously in this litigation,"
said Paxton in a statement about the request, which has been signed by 26 states,
reports The Daily Caller.
"The circumstances behind this must be investigated, and the motion we seek would help us determine to what extent the Administration might have misrepresented the facts in this case."
Texas Judge Andrew Hanen froze Obama's executive order on Feb. 16, pending future legal decisions on the matter, and Paxton's latest court action was cheered by
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who commended Paxton "for continuing to hold the Obama Administration accountable. "
Further, Abbott said he is confident "an investigation would find the Administration knowingly or recklessly misled a federal court in issuing thousands of amnesty documents illegally. President Obama has continued to show complete disregard for the Rule of Law by acting beyond his Constitutional authority at every stage of this process."
Obama's amnesty plan intends to provide work permits, residency and tax rebates for at least 4 million illegal immigrants through DAPA, or Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents. Further, it would amend the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative launched in 2012 by extending work permits for younger immigrants from two years to three.
Administration officials in November said they would not start the new amnesty plan until May, and on Jan. 15, told the judge that no applications for the revised DACA plan would be accepted until Feb. 18.
However, the three-year DACA documents were already going out, with 100,000 three-year amnesty plans extended to people granted two years' amnesty in 2012 and 2013. The documents were sent between Nov. 24, 2014, and the court's Feb. 16 order, Obama's lawyers admitted to the court.
The approvals revealed a contradiction that was made in conference calls and court papers in both December and January, when the Obama administration said no applications would be approved until early March,
reports The Washington Times.
"This newly disclosed conduct is difficult to square with defendants’ prior representation to the court that ‘nothing is going to happen’ until weeks after the preliminary-injunction hearing," Paxton said in his filing to the state on Thursday, calling for the court to allow discovery in the case.
The Obama administration, which has appealed Hanen's initial ruling, says it will also seek a stay on the judge's injunction.
Paul Virtue, a former lawyer at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, told the Times that he does not think the court will grant the stay.
"Stays are normally only granted to maintain the status quo, so DOJ faces a significant challenge convincing the court to allow the administration to move forward with a program that is not currently in place," Virtue said.
But there are still questions about whether the three-year amnesty approvals already granted will have to be revoked, and the Justice Department is maintaining that will not happen, as Hanen's injunction was not retroactive.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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