Federal judge blasts Trump's deportation force: 'Even the good hombres are not safe'

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday May 31, 2017 · 9:47 AM PDT

2017/05/31 · 09:47

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 16: US President Donald Trump listens to remarks from President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan (not pictured) during a joint statement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on May 16, 2017 in Washington, DC. Trump and Erdogan face the issue of working out cooperation in the fight against terrorism as Turkey objects to the US arming of Kurdish forces in Syria. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images) — Speaking of "bad hombres"...

A federal judge rebuked the Trump regime for a decision to deport an undocumented dad who has lived in the U.S. for nearly three decades. Andres Magana Ortiz had originally been ordered to leave by the Obama administration in 2011, but was granted permission to stay so that one of his family members could sponsor him. But under Donald Trump’s mass deportation sweep, Magana Ortiz was again ordered to leave. Magana Ortiz went to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a last-ditch effort to delay his deportation, but this week lost his case.

However, one member of the court, Judge Stephen Reinhardt, “refused to let the case go quietly” and in a “remarkable” concurrence—written when someone agrees with a ruling but is compelled to make their own statement—ripped “the government’s insistence on expelling a good man from the country,” writing that while “we do not have the authority to grant” Magana’s request to delay his deportation, “we are not, however, compelled to find the government's action in this case fair or just”:

The government forces us to participate in ripping apart a family. Three United States citizen children will now have to choose between their father and their country. If they leave their homeland with their father, the children would be forced to move to a nation with which they have no connection. All three children were born in the United States; none has ever lived in Mexico or learned Spanish. Moving with their father would uproot their lives, interrupt their educations, and deprive them of the opportunities afforded by growing up in this country. If they remain in the United States, however, the children would not only lose a parent, but might also be deprived of their home, their opportunity for higher education, and their financial support. Subjecting vulnerable children to a choice between expulsion to a foreign land or losing the care and support of their father is not how this nation should treat its citizens.

“President Trump has claimed that his immigration policies would target the ‘bad hombres,’” Judge Reinhardt plainly stated. “The government’s decision to remove Magana Ortiz shows that even the ‘good hombres’ are not safe.”

Because of a 10-year bar against his return, Magana Ortiz will be separated from his family and life, despite being a business owner and taxpayer. At one point, Judge Reinhardt notes in his concurrence, Magana Ortiz even assisted the government that is now going to deport him:

Since coming to the United States, Magana Ortiz has become a respected businessman in Hawaii and well established in the coffee farming industry. He has worked with the United States Department of Agriculture in researching the pests afflicting Hawaii’s coffee crop, and agreed to let the government use his farm, without charge, to conduct a five-year study. In his time in this country Magana Ortiz has built a house, started his own company, and paid his taxes. Although he apparently has two convictions for driving under the influence, the latest of them occurred fourteen years ago, and he has no history of any other crimes. Indeed, even the government conceded during the immigration proceedings that there was no question as to Magana Ortiz’s good moral character.

Judge Reinhardt went on to note the cruelty of a federal government that initially permitted Magana Ortiz to stay so that he and his family could take steps to sort out his legal status, only to pull the rug out from under them:

Magana Ortiz is currently attempting to obtain legal status on the basis of his wife’s and children’s citizenship, a process that is well underway. It has been over a year since his wife, Brenda, submitted her application to have Magana Ortiz deemed her immediate relative. This August, his eldest daughter, Victoria, will turn 21, and will also be able to file an application for her father. All Magana Ortiz asked for in requesting a stay was to remain in this country, his home of almost three decades, while pursuing such routes to legal status. It was fully within the government’s power to once more grant his reasonable request. Instead, it has ordered him deported immediately.

Judge Reinhardt saved his final words for Trump’s immigration hypocrisy, which has been viciously targeting moms and dads with no criminal record, despite saying that he would sweep up only dangerous folks for deportation:

President Trump has claimed that his immigration policies would target the“bad hombres.” The government’s decision to remove Magana Ortiz shows that even the “good hombres” are not safe. Magana Ortiz is by all accounts a pillar of his community and a devoted father and husband. It is difficult to see how the government’s decision to expel him is consistent with the President’s promise of an immigration system with “a lot of heart.” I find no such compassion in the government’s choice to deport Magana Ortiz.

We are unable to prevent Magana Ortiz’s removal, yet it is contrary to the values of this nation and its legal system. Indeed, the government’s decision to remove Magana Ortiz diminishes not only our country but our courts, which are supposedly dedicated to the pursuit of justice. Magana Ortiz and his family are in truth not the only victims. Among the others are judges who, forced to participate in such inhumane acts, suffer a loss of dignity and humanity as well. I concur as a judge, but as a citizen I do not.

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