The U.S. government has mistakenly issued three-year work permits to 2,000 people under President Barack Obama’s executive immigration action, after a judge had put the plan on hold indefinitely. The recent revelation is the second time the federal government has had to elucidate whether part of the immigration proposal had been implemented after a court order that put it on hold. In a court document filed Thursday, the Justice Department stated that U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services discovered that about 2,000 individuals had been inadvertently sent three-year work authorizations after U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, issued a precursory injunction on February 16 that temporarily blocked the immigration action. Hanen issued the injunction at the behest of a coalition of twenty-six states, led by Texas, which have filed a lawsuit to stop Obama’s executive action. A verdict from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is pending on whether to lift said injunction. The department said the 2,000 individuals had been qualified to receive two-year work permits under a 2012 program and that the three-year work permits were being converted into ones for two years. The department did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment late Friday. Obama first announced the executive action back in November, saying lack of action by Congress forced him to take matters into his own hands. Republicans said Obama overstepped his bounds. Along with Texas, the states seeking to block Obama’s action are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
