Pittsburgh judge grants U.S. more time to prepare appeal of immigration ruling

Ianus · 12-23-2014, 03:09 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/re...s/201412230158

Quote:

A federal judge today granted the Justice Department extra time to prepare its appeal of his ruling last week that President Obama violated the Constitution in issuing an executive order delaying deportation for millions of illegal aliens in the U.S.

The U.S. attorney's office Monday told U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab that the government is examining how the president's order could affect three local cases in which men are charged with illegally re-entering the country but would like until Jan. 12 to file a motion for reconsideration.

The judge granted that request this morning.

Ordinarily prosecutors have 14 days to file such a motion, which would have made Dec. 30 the deadline.

In an opinion issued Dec. 16 in the case of United States v. Elionardo Juarez-Escobar, 42, a Honduran man who pleaded guilty to illegally re-entering the U.S., the judge said the president cannot use his executive powers to bypass Congress. It was the first time a judge has issued an opinion on Obama's immigration policy.

The president issued his executive order on Nov. 20. Four days later, Judge Schwab asked the parties in the Juarez-Escobar case to file briefs on whether the order will affect the proceedings.

He asked the same of the lawyers in similar cases involving two other men, Salvador Lopez-Santiz and Marco Garcia-Caseras. Both, like Jaurez-Escobar, are charged with illegally entering the U.S. after having been deported. Such cases are routine in U.S. courts.

Lopez-Santiz was indicted in September after Monroeville police said he was driving drunk when he hit a house on April 14. He had previously been deported to Mexico twice in 2012.

Garcia-Caseras was indicted here last month after being pulled over in Moon for driving drunk. Between 2005 and 2008, he had been convicted multiple times of drunk driving, then was deported in 2009 and convicted of illegally re-entering the country that same year, the government said.

Neither man has entered a plea, as Juarez-Escobar did in October.

In all three cases, the U.S. attorney's office said Obama's order doesn't apply and shouldn't make any difference in how the men are prosecuted.

"The defendant was not permitted to enter the United States when he did so following his prior removal, and nothing in the [president's order] changes that fact," wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Kaufman in the Lopez-Santiz case.