Trump team has deported more than 170 migrants in violation of court orders: report

Trump team has deported more than 170 migrants in violation of court orders: report Immigration attorneys say DHS in such a hurry to hit targets and expel people ‘they aren’t actually looking at the legality of some of this stuff’ but department insists: ‘The law is on our side’ - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments The Trump administration has deported more than 170 migrants in violation of court orders since last year, according to a report. Politico reports that President Donald Trump’s raids on undocumented migrants, part of his mass deportation push, have seen instances of people wrongly removed from the U.S. “in violation of court orders, in defiance of legally mandated due process protections, or to countries from which they had sought or received protection from torture and persecution.” The outlet offers the example of Jose Ojeda Duarte, who was picked up by ICE officers in Chicago during last fall’s Operating Midway Blitz and told he was being taken to a court date relating to a pending asylum application, only to spend seven months in Arizona detention centers. He was then deported to Venezuela, which was later found to have been a blunder caused by a “data quality issue.” Ojeda has since been allowed to return to the Windy City and spoken of his struggle to readjust since his ordeal, fearing he will be sent back again. “Sometimes, I get a terrible feeling, like a fear of going out,” he told The Chicago Sun-Times. Typically, judges have responded to such errors by ordering the administration to “facilitate” the return of those removed from the country by mistake. However, those offers have not always been accepted, as in the case of college student Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, who was detained at a Massachusetts airport late last year en route to a family Thanksgiving reunion in Texas and instead sent to Honduras, a country she had not visited since she was a child. The administration has apologized for violating a court order in her case but she has nevertheless declined to return to the U.S. Like Ojeda, she fears being detained again, according to Politico. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told The Independent: “DHS complies with all court orders, even as radical NGOs shop for the most favorable forum and activist judges seek to thwart our work to fulfill the American people’s mandate to detain and remove criminal illegal aliens. “As our record in the U.S. Supreme Court demonstrates, the law is on our side. When issued a court order to return a removed alien to the United States, DHS takes every reasonable step to ensure that they are safely brought back for continued immigration proceedings and to guarantee public safety. We are a nation of laws, and we follow the law, even when activist judges warp it for political purposes. “Enforcing immigration law is not optional and is essential to protecting America’s national security, public safety, and economic strength. Operations are conducted lawfully within the authority granted to immigration officers under Title 8. Every removal of an illegal alien helps restore order and reinforce the rule of law.” The Independent has also reached out to ICE for comment. Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a Maryland-based immigration lawyer who represents Kilmar Abrego Garcia – illegally deported to El Salvador last year, provoking a national outcry – told Politico the reason for the errors was overzealous enforcement by a Trump administration keen to deliver on its targets. “The machine is running at 110 percent,” he said, adding that he had only worked on three illegal deportation cases over the course of his 17-year career before Trump’s return. Now, his firm is now taking on three per month. Another attorney, Javier Rivera, said: “They’re in such a hurry to kick people out and expel people from the United States that they aren’t actually looking at the legality of some of this stuff.” Rivera represents a client who was deported to Nicaragua in August in spite of legal protections put in place to shield her from removal given that she is a victim of domestic violence. Her return has already been ordered by a federal court. U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish of Utah attacked the administration along similar lines in a February order in which she rebuked it for adopting a “deport first, litigate later” approach to tackling illegal immigration Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments