Meanwhile, Back at the Branch
Among the many immigrants the Trump administration sent to a draconian prison in El Salvador is (at least) one who they admit was sent there in error. Yet, the administration has thus far argued it can’t or won’t bring back Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. The case reached the Supreme Court where all nine justices agreed (think about that for a second) that the administration “must ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” Well, today, the Trump administration defied a federal judge’s order to provide an explanation for how it intended to do so. The executive branch going out on a limb with this position is extreme for several reasons. First, the person who was sent to a foreign jail by mistake is still there as the government delays. Second, the notion that a person sent to a foreign prison cannot be returned doesn’t bode well for due process for immigrants, or for anyone else. (Trump Says He’d “Love” to Deport US Citizens to El Salvador Gulags if It’s Legal.) Third, it calls into question whether this executive branch will follow the directives of the judicial branch. NYT: Trump Administration Defies Judge Seeking Details on Plan to Return Wrongly Deported Man.
+ WaPo (Gift Article): The Supreme Court just set up a potentially huge clash with Trump.
+ “The Trump administration could choose to comply with the court order and secure Abrego Garcia’s return. It could also choose the path of open defiance. But it might instead make a token effort to retrieve Abrego Garcia and then shrug, telling the Court that it tried its best but was unsuccessful.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Confrontation Between Trump and the Supreme Court Has Arrived.
+ Here’s an interesting (if depressing) conversation between Andrew Weissmann and Lawrence O’Donnell about the Justice Department’s remarkable callousness in this case, and what’s at stake.
+ This is a critical case. But it’s just one example of people being sent to a foreign prison, rounded up, or deported without due process. The New Yorker: The Mystery of ICE’s Unidentifiable Arrests.
+ NYT (Gift Article): Social Security Lists Thousands of Migrants as Dead to Prompt Them to Self-Deport.
+ She Worked in a Harvard Lab to Reverse Aging, Until ICE Jailed Her. (Feel safer?) And: Australian with working visa detained and deported on returning to US from sister’s memorial. “He says the official then told him: ‘Trump is back in town; we’re doing things the way we should have always been doing them.'”
