https://www.npr.org/2018/08/09/637269721/judge-orders-return-of-deported-asylum-seekers
Judge Orders Return Of Deported Asylum-Seekers
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, pictured in 2008, has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting immigrants under new rules that largely bar asylum in domestic and gang violence cases.
Charles Dharapak/AP
Updated at 9:40 p.m. ET
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen in contempt of court if they fail to return to the U.S. a mother and daughter seeking asylum. The immigrants were deported ahead of a scheduled hearing with the court on Thursday.
A transcript of Thursday’s hearing shows U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan angry after being told the asylum-seekers had been deported and were on a plane out of the U.S. even while a government attorney was telling him they wouldn’t be deported before midnight.
“This is pretty outrageous,” Sullivan said, “Somebody in pursuit of justice in a United States court is just — is spirited away while her attorneys are arguing for justice for her?”
In addition to ordering the government to get the mother and daughter back, Sullivan blocked the Trump administration from deporting eight other immigrants — currently held in detention — who are part of the same lawsuit against the government for allegedly wrongfully rejecting their claims for asylum.
The order issued Thursday stated that the defendants, including Sessions, Nielsen, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service Director Lee Francis Cissna and Executive Office of Immigration Review Director James McHenry, “shall return ‘Carmen’ and her daughter to the United States FORTHWITH.”
Carmen is a pseudonym to protect the woman’s identity.
Court documents chronicle a sequence of events that appear to have outraged Sullivan and initiated the unusual order to return the pair to the U.S.
The judge had scheduled Thursday’s emergency hearing on the motion to block the deportation after learning of their imminent removal on Aug. 9. The government agreed that Carmen and her daughter “would not be removed prior to that time.”
But despite the government’s guarantee, Sullivan learned from the American Civil Liberties Union in open court that the two had been removed from the Dilley South Texas Family Residential Center. It wasn’t until after the hearing that the government confirmed in an email that the two plaintiffs “were, in fact, on an airplane while the Court was hearing arguments” on their case.
As a result, the order states, “The Court informed government counsel that it would neither tolerate nor excuse any delay with compliance with this Order.”
The lawsuit — involving a group of asylum-seekers still in custody and others already deported — was filed Tuesday by the ACLU and Center for Gender & Refugee Studies.
It argues the administration is wrongly rejecting asylum claimsbased on domestic abuse and gang violence. The ACLU is asking the court to invalidate a decision by Sessions that says most victims of domestic abuse and gang violence cannot qualify for asylum.
“In its rush to deport as many immigrants as possible, the Trump administration is putting these women and children in grave danger of being raped, beaten, or killed,” Jennifer Chang Newell, managing attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement.
“We are thrilled the stay of removal was issued but sickened that the government deported two of our clients — a mom and her little girl — in the early morning hours. We will not rest until our clients are returned to safety.”
The Trump administration’s position is that many asylum-seekers are gaming the system by exaggerating their fear of returning home.
In the event that the government does not “fully comply” with Sullivan’s order to return Carmen and her daughter from El Salvador, the judge said, Sessions, Nielsen, Cissna and McHenry must appear in court to “SHOW CAUSE why they should not be held in CONTEMPT OF COURT.”
Sullivan directed the administration to give him a status update by Friday afternoon.
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Adjoining cells? “The ICEBOX?” These are the scofflaws and abusers who often are heard disingenuously pontificating about “The Rule of Law.”
Remember folks, you read it first here at “Courtside!” I’ve been saying for a long time now that it’s time for a real Federal Judge to stand up to the disingenuous, disrespectful, and illegal actions of Sessions and his contemptuous bunch of scofflaws. Finally, Judge Sullivan is answering the bell that’s been ringing since the day Sessions was confirmed and began his reprehensible program of racism, intolerance, lies, distortions, illegality, child abuse, and dismantling the U.S. justice system in plain sight.
It’s a start in holding him accountable!
PWS
08-09-18
Right On. Right ON! PWS. Perhaps the most obnoxious habit of the Trumputins is constantly argue they stand for the rule of law!
What Law? Certainly not US law, specially the US Constitution. Recently, one of them accused PWS and me of being disrespectful of the law because we do not accept their interpretation that “deportable”, also means “no relief”. (Yes I am talking about you NWR).
Time to start looking for a Washington lawyer experienced in government crimes. Last year, when doubts about Trump working for the Russians were still arguably defensible, the going rate for a retainer was $30K. With thousands of Trumputins facing scrutiny for helping Putin, demand for criminal lawyers experienced in defending traitors will soar, and so will their price.
After the Dems get the House in November, documents will be subpoenaed, witnesses will plea bargain, and evidence of how Putin managed a successful coup that yielded Russia control of the US Executive Branch under Puppet Trump will surface.
That’s what Russians do. They Play Chess, promoting pawns in foreign countries into positions of influence where they can provide timely assistance to Putin’s designs. Like Trump, who has been money laundering for Putin’s Russian Mafia since the 1990s when his Daddy died and could no longer cosign Mango Mussolini risky investments.
That also includes all the “fellow travelers” (Russians call them “useful idiots”-Lenin’s words-google it), who manufactured blood libel against immigrants in general, especially Mexican Americans.
None Dare Call It Treason? I do, because that is how I lost my First Country after 1959. Benedict Arnold was our First Traitor, and all he gave the British were the architectural blueprints for West Point. Trumputins gave Putin the whole White House.
Pardon my Trumpet. As Bob Dylan wrote and Jimmi Hendrix sang in “All Along the Watchtower”: “Let’s Stop Talking Falsely Now. The Hour is Getting Late”.
G
Sessions’s disrespect for people of color, courts, our Constitution, and human decency are beyond the pale.
Really, this is not normal behavior and should not be treated as such!
I spent 35 years in DOJ. Attorneys were never permitted to essentially “give a U.S. Judge the finger” which is what Sessions has done in both the family separation case and the challenge to his disembowelment of our asylum system and Due Process.
Remember when IJ’s were “zapped” by OPR just for making a ruling that was reversed by an appellate court. Sessions basically thumbs his nose at the courts.
He owes the judges, private counsel, and the individuals involved in both of these cases a personal apology.
Thanks for commenting, Gus!
Due Process Forever. Jeff Sessions Never!
PWS
08-09-18