When Texas GOP lawmakers wanted a judge who would be a perfect fit for their anti-immigrant lawsuit, Texas v. United States, they likely bypassed Austin to file with Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville for exactly this reason: Hanen is a tad unhinged when it comes to immigration.
Now Hanen has accused the Department of Justice of “misconduct” and ordered the federal government to release to him the names and “all available contact information” of more than 100,000 Dreamers who received work permits through President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
There’s two huge problems here:
1) The Dreamers he’s targeting weren’t even at issue in the case.
2) It's hard to take Hanen’s order seriously because it's so… let’s just say unusual.
Targeting Dreamers
It’s a little confusing, but the two programs in question in the original case are DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents) and Obama’s 2014 expansion of DACA—not his original DACA program announced in 2012. As the immigration group America’s Voice explains, here’s what Judge Hanen is focused on:
At issue are three-year work permits issued to recipients of DACA 2012 in the period between the President’s 2014 announcement and the issuance of Judge Hanen’s injunction in February 2015. [...]
There is no basis for Hanen to demand this treasure trove of personal information about DREAMers. The employment authorization permits in question were issued before Hanen issued his injunction and do not fall within his order blocking the executive actions.
The unusual order
Here’s how Think Progress justice writer and attorney Ian Millhiser described the order: “This is the single worst act of judicial misconduct I have ever encountered.”
Right. Millhiser seemed to be referring to Hanen having the gall to order the release of names, addresses and contact info of innocent people who have nothing to do with the case. Hanen appears to be wielding the order as a threat of intimidation.
But here’s a few other notable tidbits about his order:
1) Hanen quoted heavily from Hollywood movies in it (some judges are more prone to quoting from precedential cases);
2) He trafficked in conspiracy theories, suggesting some kind of collusion among attorneys “somewhere in the halls of the Justice Department whose identities are unknown to this Court.” (Too bad he didn’t order the release of their names too);
3) He ordered the Justice Department attorneys in Washington working on the case (potentially hundreds) to attend ethics courses every year (yeah, that’s gonna happen). Oh, and let’s not forget Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
He also ordered the Attorney General herself to “report to this Court in sixty (60) days with a comprehensive plan to prevent” the alleged misconduct that Hanen believes happened in his courtroom “from ever occurring again.”
Surely Lynch is on Orbitz at this very moment.
Once again, if you’re looking for a test of Hanen’s propensity for sound judgment, remember that he took this case seriously and it’s still ongoing (1:14-cv-00119, for your referencing pleasure).