Once again, I had the opportunity today to directly observe the inner workings of the world’s most expensive “lost and found” operation, conducted at taxpayer expense by the U.S. federal district court for Minnesota.
Even though ICE itself has wound down Operation Metro Surge in the state, a handful of missing property reports linger on from already-closed habeas corpus cases where the corpus (the former ICE detainee) has long ago been released.
Your correspondent dialed in to a video conference conducted by federal Judge Stephen Bough (Obama appointee, on loan from the western district of Missouri) in Case No. 26-cv-1057.
The plaintiff is one Erika Julissa Llumitaxi Susa, of Ecuador, taken into ICE custody on February 4. She was released on or about February 9.
Now she claims that she is missing property, namely the passports belonging to her husband and her children. She admits that her (Ecuadoran) passport was returned to her upon release.
There are two problems with her claim: first, the “missing” passports do not appear on the official inventory of her property taken upon her detention last month. Other than her claim, there is no evidence that ICE ever had possession of these other passports.
Second, the other passports, technically, aren’t her property, and her husband and her children are not parties to this lawsuit.
The judge chose not to make a decision in the case today, but to schedule another hearing in a few weeks in the hope that the missing passports will turn up, somewhere, in the meantime.
Stay tuned.
This morning, an in-court contempt hearing was held by a different judge, Biden-appointee Jeffrey Bryan. The case is one of several being handled by Judge Bryan involving alleged missing property of illegal-alien, former ICE detainees.
Court filings do not specify the nature of today’s missing object. We are told one of the cases being handled involved a missing pack of cigarettes and a lighter. We are told that the government offered to settle the case for a sum of $17.50. Court records do not indicate the outcome of today’s hearing.
The district’s schedule for the next two weeks includes three more contempt hearings scheduled by three different district judges.
Your tax dollars at work.
