This is a barn-burner. Do read all eight pages -- and we will link the US Justice Dept. reply when filed, tomorrow -- right here.
As we said, the able USDC Judge is asking for these two briefs, to inform whether he may be released for constitutional violations, despite some stupid ICE administrative rules -- which ought not control over violations of the Fourteenth Amendment. And that is what this case is really about: willful, repeat violations of his constitutional rights, at the hands of a malignant government structure. Here it is in full -- and a bit:
. . .In March, the Executive Branch—specifically the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) -- unlawfully arrested and renditioned Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia (“Mr. Abrego”) to a notorious Salvadoran prison where he was certain to be tortured. A court had previously ruled, however, that Mr. Abrego could not be deported to El Salvador. A lawyer working for the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), defending DHS, confessed error, only to be fired for his candor to the court. On April 10, the Supreme Court then ruled in plain language that the Executive Branch had acted unlawfully and ordered it to facilitate Mr. Abrego’s return. . . .
Instead of complying with that order, the government pivoted, delaying Mr. Abrego’s return and working through Joint Task Force Vulcan, including its DOJ and DHS partners, to concoct this criminal case. DOJ and DHS promised extraordinary benefits to undocumented people who had committed crimes to provide evidence, however unreliable, in support of this case. In short order, DHS, working hand in glove with DOJ, retrieved Mr. Abrego from El Salvador to stand trial in this District. This Court evaluated the government’s evidence, such as it is, and found it to be unreliable and certainly insufficient to warrant pretrial detention. ECF 43. Judge Crenshaw agreed that the government was unlikely to show success on the merits of its motion for revocation. ECF 55. The Executive Branch, acting through the DOJ and Task Force Vulcan, now claims to be powerless to ensure that DHS will cooperate with any efforts to protect Mr. Abrego’s rights during the pendency of this case. Such claims strain credulity. . . .
As Judge Crenshaw held yesterday, “the Executive Branch” -- not DOJ or DHS in isolation, but the government as a whole -- “is in control of where [Mr. Abrego] awaits trial in this case” and “whether to hold him for pending deportation proceedings or not.” ECF 55 at 1. We agree. As the government’s conduct in this case makes plain, DOJ has the power to coordinate with DHS to ensure that (1) Mr. Abrego is not deported while these charges are pending and (2) he is housed in a facility that allows him to adequately prepare for trial in this case. We welcome the Court’s order that the DOJ -- including the Acting United States Attorney in this District, as well as the Directors and Deputy Director of Task Force Vulcan -- make “best efforts” to effectuate both of those goals. . . .
At bottom, the government’s claim that it cannot control where Mr. Abrego is detained or whether he is removed from the United States is based on a convenient fiction. DOJ and DHS are part of a single Executive Branch. . . .
Where, as here, DOJ and DHS have acted in concert since this case’s inception, proclaiming with one voice that Mr. Abrego “will never go free on American soil”, the government cannot credibly claim that DOJ is powerless to coordinate with DHS to ensure that Mr. Abrego’s case proceeds without jeopardizing his constitutional rights and the fair administration of justice. . . .
Very well-argued, on paper -- just as it was argued yesterday -- in open court in Music City. Onward -- to tomorrow's filing. Out.
नमस्ते
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