First Major Victory -- Over Child Hostage-Takers: Trump Has Until July 10 To Reunite Children Under 5; 30 Days On All Others -- Nationwide Injunction Entered

As we mentioned it might, last week, it has now happened -- in San Diego, the able US District Court Judge Dana M. Sabraw has enjoined all separations, except for those where a child is in imminent danger of harm from the family she is traveling with.

Moreover, children under five years of age are to be reunited no later than July 10, 2018. Older children must be reunited within 30 days. And Trump must immediately take all steps necessary to facilitate regular communication between family members and their children who remain in ORR custody, ORR foster care, or DHS custody. Also, by July 10, 2018, telephone contact between ALL parents and children must be provided.

Sanity is returning. Here is the full PDF of Judge Sabraw's fine 23 page opinion, and the operative bit:

. . . .We are a country of laws, and of compassion. We have plainly stated our intent to treat refugees with an ordered process, and benevolence, by codifying principles of asylum. See, e.g., The Refugee Act, PL 96-212, 94 Stat. 102 (1980). The Government’s treatment of Ms. L. and other similarly situated class members does not meet this standard, and it is unlikely to pass constitutional muster. . . .

First, although parents and children may lawfully be separated when the parent is placed in criminal custody, the same general rule does not apply when a parent and child present together lawfully at a port of entry seeking asylum. In that situation, the parent has committed no crime, and absent a finding the parent is unfit or presents a danger to the child, it is unclear why separation of Ms. L. or similarly situated class members would be necessary. . . .

Second, the practice of separating these families was implemented without any effective system or procedure for (1) tracking the children after they were separated from their parents, (2) enabling communication between the parents and their children after separation, and (3) reuniting the parents and children after the parents are returned to immigration custody following completion of their criminal sentence. This is a startling reality. The government readily keeps track of personal property of detainees in criminal and immigration proceedings. Money, important documents, and automobiles, to name a few, are routinely catalogued, stored, tracked and produced upon a detainees’ release, at all levels -- state and federal, citizen and alien. Yet, the government has no system in place to keep track of, provide effective communication with, and promptly produce alien children. The unfortunate reality is that under the present system migrant children are not accounted for with the same efficiency and accuracy as property. Certainly, that cannot satisfy the requirements of due process. See Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745, 758-59 (1982) (quoting Lassiter v. Dept. of Soc. Services of Durham County, N.C., 452 U.S. 18, (1981)) (stating it is “‘plain beyond the need for multiple citation’ that a natural parent’s ‘desire for and right to the companionship, care, custody, and management of his or her children’ is an interest far more precious than any property right.”). . . .

The facts set forth before the Court portray reactive governance -- responses to address a chaotic circumstance of the Government’s own making. They belie measured and ordered governance, which is central to the concept of due process enshrined in our Constitution. This is particularly so in the treatment of migrants, many of whom are asylum seekers and small children. The extraordinary remedy of classwide preliminary injunction is warranted based on the evidence before the Court. For the reasons set out above, the Court hereby GRANTS Plaintiffs’ motion for classwide preliminary injunction. . . .

Defendants must immediately take all steps necessary to facilitate regular communication between Class Members and their children who remain in ORR custody, ORR foster care, or DHS custody. Within ten (10) days, Defendants must provide parents telephonic contact with their children if the parent is not already in contact with his or her child. . . .

Onward -- as dawn, and the courts, await here, as well.

And with this remarkable first ruling, and those to come (including the implicit over-ruling of the majority opinion in Hawaii v. Trump, in the coming years) Donald Trump's only enduring legacy will be. . . a stain on this nation's reputation for ordered liberty and substantive due process. That -- and crap-tacular reality TV shows. But I repeat myself.

नमस्ते