Obama administration blames computer error for immigration mistake

American flag on poleThe latest filings by the Justice Department in the immigration lawsuit brought by 26 states against the executive action taken by President Obama have blamed computer error for many undocumented immigrants being granted deferred action after the programs were halted by Judge Andrew Hanen’s injunction in February.

US Customs and Immigration Services director Leon Rodriguez claims that the computer system failed and resulted in 2,000 undocumented immigrants being issued with Employment Authorization Documents and three-year deferrals after Hanen had laid down the injunction. Rodriguez claims that the department is now taking steps to ensure that such errors do not happen again while admitting to a management failure when overseeing the production and issuing of the documents.

The Department of Justice has apologized for the legal misunderstandings that followed the injunction but still denies that its lawyers deliberately tried to mislead the judge into believing that the production and issuing of the documents and deferrals had been stopped at the time of the injunction. USCIS associate director of service center operations Donald W Neufeld likewise blamed tracking errors in the organization’s computer system ‒ a system that has been designed to track the most dangerous undocumented immigrants and distinguish them from others who would be eligible to apply for deferred action.

USCIS is claiming that it has been unable to identify all the individuals who erroneously received the documents and deferrals.