This headline had to hurt: from the Minneapolis Star Tribune,
Federal court backs Trump administration’s immigrant detention policy.
After this morning’s 2-1 decision by the 8th circuit appeals court, the Star Tribune was left to deliver the bad news to its ever-dwindling liberal readership. Minnesota federal judges had not been following the clear letter of the law in more than a thousand habeas corpus cases. These rogue judges had been illegally freeing illegal aliens who were clearly subject to mandatory detention (“shall be detained”) under the plain language of applicable federal law.
How did they all get it so wrong? The Star Tribune is baffled. The statement of the case,
The appeal stems from the case of Joaquin Herrera Avila, who was detained without bond in Minneapolis last summer by the Department of Homeland Security. Herrera Avila, a Mexican national who first came to the U.S. in 2006, later filed a habeas petition seeking his release from custody. He was released on a $7,500 bond after U.S. District Judge John Tunheim granted his petition in October, which the U.S. government later appealed.
The Star Tribune quotes Avila’s attorney,
This is an unfortunate decision. It is hard to reconcile how so many district court judges can take one view and two judges at the circuit level can ignore the wisdom of over 100 judges. But that’s why we must keep fighting on.
“Ignore the wisdom.” District court judges can ignore the facts, the law, logic, the plain meaning of words, because they, and only they, have the wisdom to do right by “our neighbors.”
“97 percent of climate scientists” cannot be wrong. Consensus, not facts/laws/logic/words must rule the day, otherwise we cannot guarantee that the correct conclusion will be reached. Surely the correct outcome can be found in those emanations and penumbras that we must assume to exist.
The Star Tribune asks, “what next?” in these cases.
Questions remain about the hundreds of immigrants arrested during Operation Metro Surge who were previously released because a judge granted their habeas petitions. It’s unclear if federal immigration officials will try to re-detain them.
“It feels like this is the type of administration that might give it a go,” said Julia Decker, policy director for the Immigration Law Center of Minnesota.
A man can hope, can’t he? The Star Tribune notes that these unlawful decisions had been used as the basis for numerous contempt-of-court citations and threats to fine and imprison government lawyers for “defying” the judges’ illegal decisions. Now what?
For those keeping score, two circuits have ruled for Trump on the matter (5th and 8th) and zero against him.
I have a working hypothesis that pro-Trump verdicts don’t get the same level of publicity that adverse rulings do. I’ll be keeping score on this one. Politico, Bloomberg and The Hill all covered the decision earlier today.
