The US government has admitted that work permits were “erroneously” issued to around 2,000 individuals on the executive action program implemented by President Obama after the program was put on hold by a Texas judge. This admission came in a court document filed on Thursday.
The Justice Department says that US Citizenship and Immigration Services did not realize that around 2,000 people had been mistakenly sent work permits after February 16th, when a temporary injunction on the program was issued by US District Judge Andrew Hanen after a coalition of 26 states ‒ headed by Texas ‒ filed a lawsuit in a bid to prevent the President’s executive action. “The government sincerely regrets these circumstances and is taking prompt corrective steps while gathering additional information about these issues, including how these errors occurred,” an advisory from the Justice Department claims.
Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, claims that the actions of the lawyers from the Justice Department demonstrate a “blatant disregard” for the law. “After months of obfuscation and stall tactics by the Obama administration, the President’s lawyers have been forced to admit that they acted outside the law by implementing the President’s executive amnesty – even after a federal judge had ordered them to stop,” he explained.
Obama took executive action to implement changes to the immigration system of the United States in November, claiming that he had been forced into doing so by Congress’s inaction on the issue; however, many Republicans insist that in doing so Obama has overstepped his presidential authority.