via
Getty)
It’s
not
every
day
that
a
federal
judge
threatens
to
hold
the
US
government
in
contempt.
But
yesterday
it
happened
three
times.
“The
Court
is
not
aware
of
another
occasion
in
the
history
of
the
United
States
in
which
a
federal
court
has
had
to
threaten
contempt—again
and
again
and
again—to
force
the
United
States
government
to
comply
with
court
orders,”
wrote
Chief
Judge
Patrick
Schiltz
of
the
District
of
Minnesota,
adding
ominously
that
“This
Court
will
continue
to
do
whatever
is
required
to
protect
the
rule
of
law,
including,
if
necessary,
moving
to
the
use
of
criminal
contempt.”
The
proximate
cause
of
this
chaos
is
an
ICE
memo
issued
in
July
which
wrenched
a
clause
out
of
8
U.S.C.
§
1225(b)
to
justify
mandatory
detention
of
virtually
every
immigrant
without
permanent
legal
residence.
In
reality,
the
statute
deals
with
asylum
seekers
at
the
border,
who
can
be
detained
for
up
to
nine
days
pending
a
credible
fear
hearing.
But
DHS
is
using
it
to
justify
arresting
people
who
were
paroled
into
the
country
years,
or
even
decades,
ago
and
interning
them
indefinitely.
Outside
the
Fifth
Circuit,
judges
have
uniformly
rejected
this
contrived
interpretation.
But
ICE
continues
to
snatch
up
longterm
residents
and
intern
them,
provoking
an
avalanche
of
habeas
cases
which
have
to
be
dealt
with
immediately.
This
is
stretching
US
Attorney’s
Offices
past
the
breaking
point,
and
they
were
already
short-staffed
because
working
for
Pam
Bondi
sucks.
To
make
matters
worse,
ICE
keeps
doing
horrible
shit
when
judges
inevitably
grant
the
habeas
petitions.
There’s
a
reason
grants
now
include
instructions
to
release
the
petitioner
in
his
home
town,
with
all
his
belongings
(particularly
his
winter
coat
and
ID),
and
with
no
additional
restrictions
on
his
liberty
(like
an
ankle
monitor).
And
on
top
of
this,
ICE
routinely
disregards
court
orders
entirely.
A
month
ago,
Judge
Schiltz
published
a
list
of
96
orders
violated
in
his
district
in
January
alone.
Apparently
this
offended
the
US
Attorney
for
Minnesota,
Daniel
Rosen,
who
took
issue
with
Judge
Schiltz’s
math
and
wrote
to
him,
saying
“your
order
was
far
beyond
the
pale
of
accuracy
for
an
order
that
would
be
wielded
so
publicly
and
so
sharply.
The
lawyers
in
my
civil
division
didn’t
deserve
it.”
This
was
a
bold
move
just
days
after
a
JAG
lawyer
seconded
to
Rosen’s
office
as
a
special
assistant
US
Attorney
got
held
in
contempt
for
blowing
off
an
entire
habeas
case
and
failing
to
even
enter
an
appearance.
“The
judges
of
this
District
have
been
extraordinarily
patient
with
the
government
attorneys,
recognizing
that
they
have
been
put
in
an
impossible
position
by
Rosen
and
his
superiors
in
the
Department
of
Justice,”
Judge
Schiltz
fumed.
“What
those
attorneys
‘didn’t
deserve’
was
the
Administration
sending
3000
ICE
agents
to
Minnesota
to
detain
people
without
making
any
provision
for
handling
the
hundreds
of
lawsuits
that
were
sure
to
follow.”
Then
he
attached
another
list
of
113
more
violations
this
month.
And
he’s
not
the
only
one
preparing
to
make
it
very
unpleasant
for
supervising
lawyers
when
ICE
flips
judges
the
bird.
Judge
Jeffrey
Bryan,
also
in
Minnesota,
ordered
Rosen
and
David
Fuller,
chief
of
the
Civil
Division
in
Minnesota,
to
show
up
for
a
contempt
hearing
on
Tuesday
along
with
someone
from
ICE
“who
had
notice
of
the
Court’s
previous
Orders
in
each
of
the
above-captioned
cases
concerning
return
of
property
and
documentation
of
that
fact,
and
was
(or
were)
directly
or
indirectly
responsible
for
Petitioners’
custody,
transportation,
and
release.”
They
can
explain
under
oath
why
28
habeas
petitioners
haven’t
gotten
their
“personal
belongings
such
as
cash,
cellphones,
jewelry,
driver’s
licenses,
work
permits,
passports,
clothing,
and
other
identification
and
immigration
documents”
returned.
And
in
New
Jersey,
things
aren’t
going
much
better.
After
granting
the
habeas
petition
of
a
Salvadoran
woman
who’d
been
paroled
into
the
country
in
2016
and
then
picked
up
last
month,
Judge
Zahid
Quraishi
called
the
government’s
continued
reliance
on
its
crackpot
interpretation
of
§
1225(b)
“manifest
recklessness.”
“The
undersigned
will
not
stand
idly
by
and
allow
this
intentional
misconduct
to
go
on.
It
ends
today,”
he
warned.
“The
U.S.
Attorney’s
Office
and
the
Department
of
Homeland
Security
are
cautioned
that
further
arrests
and
detentions
under
§
1225(b)
that
come
before
the
undersigned
will
likely
trigger
the
issuance
of
an
Order
to
Show
Cause
and
the
scheduling
of
an
in-person
hearing
requiring
individuals
with
personal
knowledge
from
the
Office
and
the
Department
to
testify
under
oath
as
to
the
specific
facts
and
legal
positions
associated
with
the
detention
at
issue.”
Clearly
things
are
coming
to
a
head
between
the
judiciary
and
the
Trump
administration.
Either
DOJ
is
going
to
get
control
over
its
client,
or
US
Attorneys
are
going
to
have
to
start
coming
to
court
with
a
toothbrush.
That
will
hardly
make
it
easier
for
DOJ
to
recruit
prosecutors.
But
at
least
Kristi
Noem
will
get
to
preside
over
a
national
network
of
concentration
camps.
Liz
Dye produces
the
Law
and
Chaos Substack and podcast. You
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