US judge ruling on Obama immigration changes criticized gov't leniency on kids crossing border

WASHINGTON — The federal judge assigned to rule in the lawsuit over President Barack Obama's changes to immigration rules last year accused the Obama administration of participating in criminal conspiracies to smuggle children into the country by reuniting them with parents living here illegally.

... Homeland Security Department should be arresting parents living in the U.S. illegally who induce their children to cross the border illegally...

"DHS has simply chosen not to enforce the United States' border security laws," the judge wrote. ...

Hanen was assigned through an automated system to be the judge who will preside over a lawsuit filed by 20 states trying to block Obama's expansive executive actions to spare nearly 5 million people living in the U.S. illegally from deportation...

Last December, Hanen wrote a 10-page order in an immigrant smuggling case in which he his frustration over four cases in a month in which a child who arrived in the U.S. illegally alone was reunited with a parent also in the country illegally.

"Instead of arresting (the child's mother) for instigating the conspiracy to violate our border security laws, the (Homeland Security Department) delivered the child to her — thus successfully completing the mission of the criminal conspiracy," Hanen wrote.

...The order highlighted the growing problem of unaccompanied child immigrants being caught at the border in South Texas. During the fiscal year that ended in September, the government apprehended more than 68,000 unaccompanied children at the border....

Texas is leading a coalition of states suing the government. It argued in the lawsuit filed last week that Obama's decision "tramples" key portions of the Constitution. The states, including Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana and the Carolinas, aren't seeking monetary damages but want Hanen to block the president's actions...

"Texas is uniquely qualified to challenge the president's executive order, and South Texas is at the epicenter of where border security is of concern for Texas and the entire nation," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a statement. Abbott was elected last month to be the next governor of Texas.

The Justice Department, which is defending the case, declined to comment on the case.

Obama announced the executive actions in November, saying lack of action by Congress forced him to make sweeping changes to immigration rules on his own.

The administrative actions don't provide legal immigration status or green cards to those in the country illegally, but millions of eligible immigrants will be able to apply for permission to stay in the country for up to three years and get a work permit.