The villain in that villainy is ICE. I’ve written many articles about scathing court decisions against the Trump Regime. However, this story, and this decision, may stand above all others. The quote in the title is just the start. But let’s start with a story that I think even the most hardened of brainwashed MAGAs would find to difficult to reconcile.
For the record, Judge Gary R. Brown, was appointed by Trump. When Judge Brown’s initial nomination was returned because the Senate adjourned without acting on his nomination, Trump renominated him. So this judge was nominated by Trump twice. You can read the judge’s decision HERE. I encourage you to do so. It is only 24 pages long.
Hesler Asaf Garcia Lanza is a legal resident of this country. He came to this country from Honduras fifteen years ago at the age of 9 fifteen years ago as a victim of child abuse and neglect. He was granted Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status making him lawfully present while his application for permanent legal status is considered. He was issued a work permit. He has never committed a crime. He took advantage of his lawful residency to attend the New York City College of Technology where he graduated magna cum laude.
At 24 years of age he secured a job as a theatrical lighting designer. From a terrifying start, his story pulling himself up with hard work and dedication is how the American dream story begins for many immigrants who gone to do great things for this country. Alas, under this villainous regime that dream has become a nightmare.
On January 3d Garcia Lanza was walking to work when he saw an SUV with blacked out windows suspiciously following him, leading him to believe he had been targeted for a robbery. He should have been so lucky.
Four vehicles surrounded him and he was swarmed by masked immigration agents. ICE admits they got the wrong guy, that they were looking for someone else (who did have a criminal record) they (ahem) claim “looked” like Garcia Lanza. The agents asked if he had a green card. He presented his work authorization card. They took the card. They still have not given it back.
While the agents knew they had missed their target, they nonetheless illegally arrested Garcia Lanza. “We’re going to take him with us anyway,” declared the senior officer. They had no probable cause that he had committed a crime. While in detention they filled out an administrative arrest warrant. Arrest warrants cannot be done after arrest, after all, what would be the point?
ICE simply declared, without any kind of hearing, that his work permit and legal status was rescinded and began proceedings to deport him while continuing to hold him. ICE released him several days later after a judge ordered his release. ICE then declared that Garcia Lanza owed the agency over $5,000 in costs related to their illegally arresting him.
In condemning all this the Trump appointed judge did not hold back. I’ll just quote some:
“as part of ICE’s recent surge in enforcement efforts, in violation of Constitutional safeguards, statutory guarantees and regulatory restrictions, agents arrested him without a warrant. He was handcuffed, shackled and detained in a facility designed to hold charged and convicted criminals. ICE officers targeted Garcia Lanza for arrest simply because he looked like someone else for whom the agents were purportedly searching. Having discovered their mistake when presented with proof that he had legitimate immigration classification . . . ICE agents nevertheless continued to detain him. As bureaucratic cover for the arrest, agents completed a post-arrest administrative warrant and then commenced baseless removal proceedings against him. Then, DHS proceeded to revoke the deferred action and work authorization associated with his SIJ status–a reprehensible act of unimaginable cruelty.”
The court continued:
“This isn’t how things are supposed to work in America. Unquestionably, the laws of human decency condemn such villainy. Equally, the laws of this nation, including the Constitution, statutory law and regulations, proscribe the illegal arrest and detention of the petitioner as well as the retaliatory termination, without notice, of the privileges associated with his SIJ status. While the Executive Branch retains the right – as it has done – to set policy regarding immigration matters, it is forbidden from trampling our system of laws – a system which has safeguarded this nation for close to 250 years.”
I have recently read numerous decisions condemning the Trump Regime’s immigration enforcement. However, seeing a judge accuse the United States government of “villainy” and “unimaginable cruelty” condemned “by the laws of human decency,” strikes me as a new experience.
For its part the argument from the United States government was worse than weak. It amounted to a claim that the executive branch that granted Garcia Lanza legal status can arbitrarily and capriciously take it away and that no court has jurisdiction to say otherwise. Per the government, an illegal arrest can be later papered over with a post hoc arrest warrant, that in itself cited no probable cause for a criminal charge.
Judge Brown would have none of it, noting that the government’s “brief largely ignores the facts and . . . is a boilerplate screed with language befitting a high school term paper.” The government brief claimed, “there can be no argument that ICE previously paroled Petitioner, constructively or otherwise.” As the judge pointed out, the statute creating the SIJ status Garcia Lanza was granted expressly states those given such status, “shall be deemed . . . to have been paroled into the United States.”
The judge describes repeatedly offering the government the opportunity to explain the process by which it exercised its supposed discretion to unilaterally revoke Garcia Lanza’s legal status. The government offered no answer. In the words of Judge Brown, “Perhaps [the government’s] efforts to document the process were stymied by the lack of such a process.” Judge Brown concluded:
“the revocation of Garcia Lanza’s deferred action and work authorization appears to have been pretextual and retaliatory: the only evidence as to the impetus for these decisions was an effort to rationalize his illegal arrest and detention.”
When the government starts arresting and detaining people, and taking post hoc bureaucratic actions to justify it, we are truly no longer in a republic. The judge concluded the evidence supported Garcia Lanza’s claim that racism explains his treatment, and the judge directed further hearings on that question. The judge also cited evidence that the problems identified in this case may be far more widespread, involving many other people.
“The abhorrent and illegal practices identified in this opinion are not limited to this case but are seemingly being inflicted on a widespread basis.”
The judge then invites defense counsel to seek class action relief for similarly situated individuals. The judge also orders Garcia Lanza’s work permit returned and orders that $5,000+ fine the government imposed vacated. The judge goes further by suggesting Garcia Lanza seek relief under the Equal Access To Justice Act to compel the government to pay for the costs of his legal representation. The EAJA allows such restitution when an agency’s action’s actions against a person were not “substantially justified.” The government’s trammeling of rights is not necessarily free. You may pay for it.
To summarize, the villainous Trump Regime committed acts of “unimaginable cruelty” violating “laws of human decency” all as “bureaucratic cover” to “rationalize an illegal arrest and detention.” The government defense was little more than “a boilerplate screed with language befitting a high school term paper,” that clearly misstated the facts and relevant law.
All of this was done in our name, as a government of the people, the government acts as our representative when it commits such atrocities. As another judge recently wrote: “When the state reaches out and takes hold of a human being and deprives him of his liberty, that act must present itself as the people’s act.” What the Trump Regime is doing smears all of us.
