by
Win
McNamee/Getty
Images)
Trump’s
rendition
cases
are
starting
to
bleed
into
each
other.
On
Monday,
plaintiffs
in
the
habeas
case
for
men
banished
to
the
notorious
CECOT
prison
in
El
Salvador
docketed
an
admission
by
the
Salvadoran
government
that
the
United
States
retains
constructive
custody
of
prisoners
dumped
there
by
the
Trump
administration.
In
response
to
a
complaint
by
the
men’s
families,
El
Salvador
told
the
United
Nations
that
“the
jurisdiction
and
legal
responsibility
for
these
persons
lie
exclusively
with
the
competent
foreign
authorities,
by
virtue
of
international
agreements
signed
and
in
accordance
with
the
principles
of
sovereignty
and
international
cooperation
in
criminal
matters.”
This
would
appear
to
prove
that
the
DOJ
lied
to
multiple
courts
when
it
said
that
the
Trump
administration
has
no
responsibility
once
it
pushes
detainees
out
of
the
plane
onto
foreign
soil,
and
that
facilitating
their
return
would
require
delicate
negotiations
handled
personally
by
Secretary
of
State
Marco
Rubio.
“Those
aliens
are
in
the
custody
of
a
foreign
nation
pursuant
to
its
laws,”
the
DOJ
argued
in
May.
The
United
States
does
not
have
custody
so
there
is
no
jurisdiction.
It
does
however
accord
with
the
government’s
ability
to
get
Kilmar
Abrego
Garcia
back
from
El
Salvador
without
moving
to
formally
extradite
him,
after
months
in
which
the
DOJ
insisted
this
was
simply
impossible.
Judge
James
Boasberg
is
still
mulling
the
matter
in
DC.
But
in
the
meantime,
Judge
Stephanie
Gallagher
of
the
US
District
Court
for
the
District
of
Maryland
has
ordered
the
government
to
explain
itself.
Again.
But
this
time
without
the
lying.
Judge
Gallagher
is
overseeing
a
2024
settlement
entered
in
a
six-year-old
case
called
J.O.P.
v.
Dep’t
of
Homeland
Security.
In
exchange
for
the
plaintiffs
dismissing
their
litigation,
the
government
promised
not
to
remove
undocumented
children
who
showed
up
at
the
border
as
unaccompanied
minors
without
providing
specific
due
process.
The
Trump
administration
broke
that
promise
almost
immediately,
renditioning
a
detainee
pseudonymously
referred
to
as
“Cristian”
to
CECOT
in
El
Salvador.
On
April
23,
Judge
Gallagher
ordered
the
government
to
facilitate
Cristian’s
return
to
the
United
States.
Thus,
like
Judge
Xinis
in
the
Abrego
Garcia
matter,
this
Court
will
order
Defendants
to
facilitate
Cristian’s
return
to
the
United
States
so
that
he
can
receive
the
process
he
was
entitled
to
under
the
parties’
binding
Settlement
Agreement.
This
Court
further
orders
that
facilitating
Cristian’s
return
includes,
but
is
not
limited
to,
Defendants
making
a
good
faith
request
to
the
government
of
El
Salvador
to
release
Cristian
to
U.S.
custody
for
transport
back
to
the
United
States
to
await
the
adjudication
of
his
asylum
application
on
the
merits
by
USCIS.
The
government
immediately
appealed,
and,
after
a
brief
administrative
pause,
the
Fourth
Circuit
declined
to
issue
a
stay.
Judge
Gallagher’s
order
went
into
effect
on
May
19,
and
the
very
next
day
she
ordered
the
government
to
file
a
status
report
that
included
a
sworn
declaration,
under
oath,
by
person(s)
with
personal
knowledge
as
to:
1)
Cristian’s
location
and
custodial
status;
2)
what
steps
the
government
has
taken
to
facilitate
his
return;
and
3)
what
steps
they
planned
to
take
in
the
future.
Instead
the
government
produced
a
series
of
declarations
from
someone
named
Mellissa
Harper,
the
Acting
Deputy
Executive
Associate
Director
of
the
Enforcement
and
Removal
Operations
Division
at
ICE
(and
not
Secretary
of
State
Marco
Rubio).
Harper
blithely
insisted
that
some
unnamed
“senior
leadership”
authorized
her
to
“make
the
following
statement”:
Secretary
Rubio
has
a
personal
relationship
with
President
Bukele
and
senior
officials
in
the
El
Savadorean
[sic]
government
that
dates
back
over
a
decade….
[H]e
is
personally
handling
the
discussions
with
the
government
of
El
Salvador
regarding
persons
subject
to
the
Court’s
order
detained
in
El
Salvador.
Judge
Gallagher
has
become
increasingly
testy
over
these
non-responsive
responses,
and
Monday’s
UN
report
appeared
to
push
her
over
the
edge
into
open
fury.
Yesterday
she
sua
sponte
took
judicial
notice
of
the
report
and
gave
the
defendants
one
week
to
come
clean
after
months
in
which
it
“repeatedly
skirted
this
Court’s
directive
to
provide
information.”
Defendants
have
repeatedly
made
oblique
references
to
their
request
of
“assistance”
from
the
U.S.
Department
of
State
(DOS),
which
has
“enter[ed]
into
negotiations
to
facilitate
Cristian’s
return”
and
“assumed
responsibility
on
behalf
of
the
U.S.
Government
for…diplomatic
discussions
with
El
Salvador.”
Assuming
the
Government
of
El
Salvador
provided
truthful
information
to
the
UN,
no
“diplomatic
discussions”
should
be
required
here
because
El
Salvador
has
no
sovereign
interest
in
Cristian’s
continued
confinement
in
that
country.
This
Court
directs
Defendants
to
explain
their
position
that
“diplomatic
discussions”
involving
the
DOS
are
required
to
facilitate
Cristian’s
return
to
the
United
States
in
compliance
with
this
Court’s
Order.
Oh,
Mellissa
Harper
…
you’ve
got
some
‘splainin’
to
do.
J.O.P. v. U.S.
Department
of
Homeland
Security
[Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Liz
Dye and Andrew
Torrez produce
the
Law
and
Chaos Substack and podcast