Harry Litman - Just Add ICE
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security posted a press release on its official website with a large, bold headline: “Activist Biden Judge Releases Violent Criminal Illegal Alien Wanted for Murder.” The release named the judge, Melissa DuBose, and went on to accuse her of knowingly freeing a murder suspect because she was, “an activist judge trying to thwart President Trump’s mandate from the American people to remove criminal illegal aliens from our communities.”
There was one problem. The judge had no idea about the murder case. That’s because the DOJ lawyer had failed to include that detail in arguing against release. And that in turn was because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had instructed the lawyer to withhold it from Judge DuBose.
The case vividly illustrates the untenable position of DOJ attorneys pressed into service to represent ICE. It is hard enough to work as a DOJ lawyer under the new regime, which has shredded the principles of federal prosecution and replaced them with an all-encompassing command to serve at Donald Trump’s quixotic pleasure. But add ICE as your client and the difficulty becomes nigh on impossible, as attorneys across the country have discovered while trying to represent an agency that ignores legal constraints, exhibits contempt for the rule of law, and withholds information from its own lawyers.
This case is the latest flashpoint over a legal issue that has become the defining battle in immigration courts around the country. The Trump administration has taken the position that even people who have been in the United States for decades—working, paying taxes, and raising children—are forevermore “applicants for admission,” no different from those who first present themselves at the border. Over 300 district courts have rejected the administration’s position, but the courts of appeals have split 2-2, and the issue is almost certainly going to the Supreme Court.
https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/just-add-ice