Comments on: Black Sites

Black Sites

rambling wanderlust — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 06:02:06 -0800

Trump Is Asking the Supreme Court To Let Him Have Black Sites (Slate)
In a court filing, the government acknowledged that it had deported at least one migrant to El Salvador due to an "administrative error"—but argued that the individual had no right to contest his imprisonment because he is in the custody of a "foreign sovereign." This argument confirms what's been clear for weeks: The government intends to treat the prison as a black site where migrants have no constitutional rights whatsoever and may be subject to any treatment whatsoever—including indefinite detention, forced labor, torture, or death.

Abrego Garcia's deportation was unambiguously illegal, and his lawyers swiftly filed suit demanding his return. On Monday, the DOJ responded with a bombshell admission: Abrego Garcia did have a right to remain in the U.S. and was shipped off to CECOT only because of an "administrative error." The DOJ then declared that there was nothing the plaintiff or the government could do to fix this confessed mistake. Abrego Garcia, it wrote, would need to file a writ of habeas corpus, the traditional procedure for challenging unlawful detention. Indeed, it argued, Abrego Garcia's claims "can proceed only in habeas"—he has no other way to fight his imprisonment. And yet, the department concluded, no federal court can hear his habeas claim, because he is "not in United States custody." He thus has no remedy whatsoever and must remain in CECOT indefinitely. ... These arguments, taken together, show how the Trump administration is transforming CECOT into a black site to which migrants can be disappeared forever. It is even worse than Guantánamo Bay, because that facility is at least under American control—a key reason why the high court ruled that its inmates have habeas rights. CECOT, by contrast, is run by El Salvador, so the U.S. government disclaims any authority over its operations. Once a migrant is locked up there, the government says it has no power to demand his return, let alone any say over his treatment behind bars.

Would it be legal for Trump to send U.S. citizens to El Salvador's jails? (NPR)

The U.S. is "just profoundly grateful," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, for El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's offer to incarcerate criminals being held in American prisons — including U.S. citizens and legal residents — in his country's jails. Rubio called the offer "an extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country." But the prospect that the U.S. might consider deporting its own citizens to serve prison time in another nation's jails quickly drew a backlash from people saying such a plan would be illegal. It's unclear how seriously the Trump administration might pursue such an idea, but President Trump said on Tuesday that he would welcome it — if it were legal. "I'm just saying if we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat," President Trump said when asked about El Salvador's offer on Tuesday. "I don't know if we do or not, we're looking at that right now." Experts, however, are adamant it is unconstitutional.

'We were lied to': Two women the Trump administration tried to send to El Salvador prison speak out The women's accounts raise questions about the thoroughness of the administration's vetting of migrants it has sent to the notorious prison. (NBC News)
Black Sites (Wikipedia)
OFF THE GRID Nine CIA 'Black Sites' Where Detainees Were Tortured (Intercept)

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 06:30:14 -0800

Why would they even ask SCOTUS for permission? It's not like they give a rat's ass about rules to begin with. I mean, if SCOTUS actually says "no," does anyone believe this administration won't just ignore the ruling? I suppose they're fishing for SCOTUS' blessing, so there is no question about it.

By: Lemkin

Lemkin — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 06:38:53 -0800

The Supreme Court has already ruled that anything he does as president is beyond the law. The rest is just commentary.

By: Gelatin

Gelatin — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 06:40:49 -0800

I suppose they're fishing for SCOTUS' blessing, so there is no question about it. Trump knows (to the extent he knows anything) that he can count on Thomas and Alito at the very least.

By: RonButNotStupid

RonButNotStupid — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 06:41:48 -0800

The administration's modus operandi has been to put institutions in impossible positions where they have to decide whether to follow the rules and provoke a full-on, no-going-back constitutional crisis or roll over and debase themselves in order to preserve some semblance of normalcy because the country is too big to fail.

By: Garm

Garm — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 06:42:59 -0800

I'm not sure how SCOTUS would rule on this. There are three justices who might go either way and Trump needs two. Gorsuch, Barrett, and Roberts. Roberts basically started us down this path, but at the same time, he's kind of the Jenga justice - he wants democracy to fall, just not on "his turn" so he doesn't get a nasty footnote in the history books. Also, thank you for laying it out like this. I've been explaining this but people look at me like I'm some conspiracy theorist. I'm really not. But this is just 1 + 1 = 2. They haven't explicitly said it, but the implication couldn't be louder or clearer.

By: JustSayNoDawg

JustSayNoDawg — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 06:45:38 -0800

If there's another administration in four years, I hope there's finally some human rights tribunals for ICE. Some people need to be locked up for life for this s--t.

By: Lemkin

Lemkin — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 06:57:48 -0800

The government is trying to shunt migrants' legal claims through a channel that is doomed to end in failure. It seeks to ensnare these migrants in a Kafkaesque trap from which there may be no lawful escape. And it is trying to sell this subterfuge to the federal judiciary as a legitimate opportunity for due process if any migrants have plausible objections to their treatment. To the extent that this framing suggests that black sites are only a threat to migrants, it is a dangerous lie. Once the pipeline is built, Trump can shove anyone he wants into the funnel. Though for high-profile targets like, say, the executive editor of The New York Times, it will be simpler to just have him fall out of a window.

By: BungaDunga

BungaDunga — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 06:59:47 -0800

Why would they even ask SCOTUS for permission? It's not like they give a rat's ass about rules to begin with. I mean, if SCOTUS actually says "no," does anyone believe this administration won't just ignore the ruling? I actually don't think they have much appetite for outright defying SCOTUS yet. They haven't, for instance, trafficked any more people to El Salvador since Boasberg slapped them with a TRO.

By: The 10th Regiment of Foot

The 10th Regiment of Foot — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 07:04:00 -0800

The Supreme Court has already ruled that anything he does as president is beyond the law. Yes, specifically him, but he is not personally flying people to El Salvador. If an action is illegal, then all Federal workers are sworn and obligated to refuse to comply. So to paraphrase Andrew Jackson, the President has ordered, let him now enforce it.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 07:06:23 -0800

He's unstoppable because no one has the guts to try to stop him. SCOTUS included.

By: sid

sid — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 07:09:43 -0800

Troubling

By: Frowner

Frowner — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 07:10:29 -0800

While we're on this, it's pretty clear that conditions in ICE detention have worsened: USA Today story about detention. I can't find it because I'm not on the right device, but I saw a thread on this last night with additional details saying that four people had died recently and women were only being given a cup of water a day. This stuff, including the black sites, really is the first step to actual "we send people here to be killed" death camps. It is so easy to see how the slippage can happen in ICE detention centers in the US. First it will be by "accident" from starvation or dehydration, always scaling up. Then it will be on purpose. ~~ Honestly, I can find some reasons for hope on the economy side of our situation, because I think they're disorganized, all this is contingent, there are a lot of centers of power, everything they are doing is unpopular and will cause unrest if it operates as intended. It's this stuff where I think most Americans are either unwilling to care (too much on their plates, turn off on purpose, unwilling to believe because it's too horrifying), don't want to care because it's immigrants and "criminals" or actively support it where the situation seems worst to me. Further: I think that Gaza had a terrible, corrupting and enfeebling effect on Americans, and it has been part of the path to these horrors at home. One of the chants at protests for Palestine in past years was "by the millions by the billions, we are all Palestinians" and I used to think that was frankly kind of stupid, because actually it was the Palestinians being bombed and killed, not us. And it's true that we're not being bombed and killed but the moral universe where you just mass-slaughter innocent trapped civilians including babies in full view of the world - that's the moral universe that was brought into being from October 2023 and has been live on the internet for a year and a half and that is the moral universe in which sending people to a torture hyperprison never to return is being normalized.

By: ginger.beef

ginger.beef — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 07:14:19 -0800

He's unstoppable at this moment in time some people may deem this person unstoppable Trump is not unstoppable maybe not today, tomorrow, or even this year, but one day things will change because people will force a change, whether you or I are part of that or not plus last time I checked he will die one day just like the rest of us

By: Lemkin

Lemkin — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 07:26:24 -0800

that's the moral universe that was brought into being from October 2023 The post's subject has its roots in Ford's pardon of Nixon, the Bush v Gore ruling, the PATRIOT Act, the arbitrary detention and torture of Jose Padilla, Obama force-feeding inmates in Guantanamo, etc. We'd be exactly where we are today if the genocide of the Palestinians had never been put in motion.

By: Mayor West

Mayor West — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 07:44:25 -0800

Anecdote time. I live in Boston, which weathered the last Trump administration without terrible damage, because our local and state governments are generally able to mobilize and keep the worst of the shitstorm away from us. It wasn't perfect, and I'm sure it was much worse for communities of color, but 2016-2020 was not a fascist dystopian hellscape here. The same cannot be said for round 2. A couple weeks ago, a Tufts graduate student was abducted off the street by ICE agents in retaliation for an anti-Israel op-ed she wrote last year, and the incident was caught on tape and quickly went viral. (There was an FPP about it, which I don't want to go look up because the video itself is deeply disturbing to watch) A judge issued an order not to transport her out of state, but ICE did it anyway because who's going to stop them? There are ongoing turf wars between district and federal courts, mostly having to do with judges holding ICE agents in contempt for brazenly defying legal orders, and federal agencies pushing back by essentially arguing they're immune to district court rulings. The feds are very clearly targeting cities whose mayors made Cheeto look bad during Congressional hearings, and people living here are acceptable collateral damage. Which leads me to yesterday. On the train to work, I was standing next to a guy in black pants, a black sweatshirt with some kind of screen-printed design on it, and a belt with holsters for a radio and for a sidearm. I've lived here for twenty years, and I've never once seen anyone open-carrying on the subway unless they were in uniform. Hell, even the transit police aren't always armed. This dude was obviously out of place, and I immediately pegged him as some sort of plainclothes fed, doing the worst possible job operating incognito. Other people on the train noticed, too. There was a rent-a-cop sitting across from me, and we locked eyes and had one of those unspoken "uh, you got my back here if shit goes down?" conversations I've only experienced a handful of times. A handful of very nervous-looking Latina women got off at the next stop, after he stared uncomfortably toward them for a few minutes. And I realized: if this chucklehead decides to do something insane like harass someone on this train, I am absolutely going to tackle him to the ground and restrain him until the transit police get here. I will likely get away from this without being seriously injured because this train car is full of people who hate these guys as much as I do and will make sure he can't go for his gun. Two weeks ago, I would not have been in that headspace, because it still seemed like the rule of law was more-or-less intact, at least locally. But the mask has since been ripped off of the machine. These assholes absolutely don't care if they're flaunting the law, because they haven't faced any consequences for it no matter how far they step over the line. They can finally say the quiet part out loud. If US citizens can be sent to foreign prisons, and all it elicits is a collective shrug of the shoulders from the DOJ, then we've already lost. If we're all headed for the gulags eventually, it might as well be for pushing back against the apparatus while it's still sending out lone agents to conduct terror missions in disfavored cities, and before it starts sending them in large groups of armored vehicles. There's no moral to this story. I just needed to vent, and point out to anyone who's still on the fence about what to do: it's still early enough that we can do something about this. Musk still can't openly buy Wisconsin's Supreme Court elections. There's still enough friction between local/state authorities and federal ones that we can throw sand in the gears and make it a liability for them to act like this. Fucking hell, man.

By: rambling wanderlust

rambling wanderlust — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 07:46:03 -0800

All of this goes hand in hand with their desire to completely suspend due process. All the administration will need to do is decide that you might be an immigrant (with no need to actually justify it or provide anything beyond the flimsiest of excuses) and now the law doesn't apply to you at all, no matter what your citizenship status is in this country. Already they are saying that they don't even need a warrant to enter into anyone's house or business, with similar reasoning, because anybody could be housing the next Ann Frank. Will ICE Use the Alien Enemies Act To Enter Homes Without Warrants? Already this year, the agency has allegedly conducted a warrantless raid in Newark and several warrantless arrests in the Midwest. (Reason)

Just a few days after President Donald Trump took office in January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out a workplace raid in Newark, New Jersey, that alarmed local officials and immigrant advocates. ICE agents detained "undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant," said Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka in a January 23 statement. "This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees 'the right of the people [to] be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.'"

Trump's single most aggressive attack on immigrants is now before the Supreme Court The president claims he can deport people without due process under a wartime law, even though we aren't at war. (Vox)

Now Trump wants the Supreme Court to halt the lower court order and effectively allow him to resume deportations without any meaningful review, and without having to prove the immigrants targeted by his proclamation have actually done anything wrong. The case, which is known as Trump v. J.G.G., is before the Court on its "shadow docket," a mix of emergency motions and other matters which the justices often decide after only cursory review of the case. A decision on the case could come any time in the next few weeks. In J.G.G., Trump's lawyers make three arguments that, when combined, would give him virtually unchecked authority to remove any noncitizen from the United States.

By: fings

fings — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 07:52:28 -0800

unchecked authority to remove any noncitizen Which, let's face it, means *anybody*. All they have to do is claim you aren't a citizen, like maybe your birth certificate was forged. Without due process, you can't prove otherwise.

By: ginger.beef

ginger.beef — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 07:59:05 -0800

like maybe your birth certificate was forged enough with this science fiction nonsense /s

By: 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a

922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 08:01:34 -0800

This Abrego Garcia, it wrote, would need to file a writ of habeas corpus, the traditional procedure for challenging unlawful detention. Indeed, it argued, Abrego Garcia's claims "can proceed only in habeas"—he has no other way to fight his imprisonment. And yet, the department concluded, no federal court can hear his habeas claim, because he is "not in United States custody." He thus has no remedy whatsoever and must remain in CECOT indefinitely Is a modern re-writing of this: Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. "That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. "It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed."

By: outgrown_hobnail

outgrown_hobnail — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 08:10:23 -0800

"but she had a funny laugh and wasn't Perfect"

By: NotAYakk

NotAYakk — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 08:36:40 -0800

> Yes, specifically him, but he is not personally flying people to El Salvador. If an action is illegal, then all Federal workers are sworn and obligated to refuse to comply. So to paraphrase Andrew Jackson, the President has ordered, let him now enforce it. In order to make jackbooted thugs, what you do is order your employees to do something unethical. Those that refuse, you fire. Those that do it, you keep on and promote. You then hire people who want to do unethical things. You don't have to care about deporting people to torture cells for this to be useful - if your goal is jackbooted thug followers, and the torture they perform is quality control. MAGA has QC'd most of their politicians this way, and they are now actively working on the federal government and security services. So he'll get people to enforce it. It just takes time. All of this noise about "judges aren't legitimate" (anything that isn't dear leader isn't legitimate) is sowing the field for harvest.

By: weard_beard

weard_beard — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 08:42:53 -0800

Mayor West "it's still early" We're still finding out whether the military will be an issue. Try to not get arrested until we know. We'll need guys like you out of jail.

By: HearHere

HearHere — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 09:14:31 -0800

a Tufts graduate student was abducted off the street by ICE agents in retaliation for an anti-Israel op-ed she wrote last year... There was an FPP about it: previously

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 09:49:27 -0800

This stuff, including the black sites, really is the first step to actual "we send people here to be killed" death camps. I've been arguing IRL both that the US is well into the "camps" in the concentration/death/re-education sense already and that it is also an inevitable result if not defining feature of fascism. The Trump boosters here in Canada having been moving the goal posts on what constitutes a camp for years and the predictable move this time is "well that person isn't a citizen". Only two more moves left. "That person wasn't a natural citizen" and "something, something they shouldn't be a citizen". It is so easy to see how the slippage can happen in ICE detention centers in the US. First it will be by "accident" from starvation or dehydration, always scaling up. Then it will be on purpose. Time for my regular fyi/reminder that Anne Frank wasn't killed by the Nazis directly. Rather she died from some combination of disease, malnutrition and over crowding in the camp she was sent to. Every person who dies as a result of neglect while being detained is on the people who did it same as if they took the victim outside and put a bullet through their head.

By: The 10th Regiment of Foot

The 10th Regiment of Foot — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 10:39:11 -0800

In order to make jackbooted thugs, what you do is order your employees to do something unethical. Those that refuse, you fire. Those that do it, you keep on and promote. You then hire people who want to do unethical things. You don't have to care about deporting people to torture cells for this to be useful - if your goal is jackbooted thug followers, and the torture they perform is quality control. MAGA has QC'd most of their politicians this way, and they are now actively working on the federal government and security services. So he'll get people to enforce it. It just takes time. Trump is running into the same thing that he has used to his advantage in his own business dealings for decades, court delays. Courts are delaying his firings, orders, and budget cuts. MAGA may have ambitions of actively working on the Federal government, but their "mandate" is so slim that they have no legislative agenda to effectuate the changes. Meanwhile his failure to lower consumer prices, his usual bungling of security issues, and the disastrous tariffs mean that he is already running into the deadline to even maintain what slim majority he does have in the legislature. Time is not on his side. His only hope is to blame failure on his opposition once they retake Congress in the midterms, which he would have used to great effect in 2020 if it hadn't been for those meddling germs!

By: 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a

922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 11:11:53 -0800

His only hope is to blame failure on his opposition once they retake Congress in the midterms Have you seen the elections of the past 10 years? Taking back Congress is....a stretch

By: outgrown_hobnail

outgrown_hobnail — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 11:57:15 -0800

^^ Three special elections in the last week, a 16-point shift in each. That's landslide territory. I know, I know: bold of me to assume there will be elections in 2026.

By: Rumple

Rumple — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 12:11:37 -0800

I suppose they're fishing for SCOTUS' blessing, so there is no question about it. It's my understanding that minority SCOTUS dissents or expansive concurrences can be very useful long term. One of Thomas's was used extensively by Judge Cannon in the Mar a Lago toilet secret documents case before that got shut down.

By: NotAYakk

NotAYakk — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:19:13 -0800

> Trump is running into the same thing that he has used to his advantage in his own business dealings for decades, court delays. Courts are delaying his firings, orders, and budget cuts. If following a court order instead of your King's orders leads to you being fired, and violating the court order leads to instantly pardoned sanctions, what exactly did the court order do? I can see them setting up this exact "puzzle", waiting for a court order they can defy with gusto, while undermining the idea that courts should be followed. A "bad perpetrators make bad law" situation, something they can use as a rallying flag to treat courts as a common enemy. It does need to be something to rally around, as it needs to embolden enough MAGA true believers; part of this creeping fascism plan involves replacing reluctant underlings with somewhat competent fanatics. Defying the courts over something irrelevant could result in too many reluctant underlings and not enough fired-up fanatics.

By: atoxyl

atoxyl — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:29:59 -0800

The Supreme Court has already ruled that anything he does as president is beyond the law. Not really in the sense that's relevant, here.

By: Garm

Garm — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 17:20:18 -0800

Yes, specifically him, but he is not personally flying people to El Salvador. If an action is illegal, then all Federal workers are sworn and obligated to refuse to comply. So to paraphrase Andrew Jackson, the President has ordered, let him now enforce it. Except the court ruled in Trump v United States that pardons were a core constitutional power that can't be questioned. There was some theory that while a pardon can't be undone, using them corruptly could lead to charges for the president at least. But now, he could simply pardon anyone breaking any laws he dislikes. In fact, I kind of expect him to do that in the next Jordan Neel-type situation to test the waters.

By: ryoshu

ryoshu — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 17:51:56 -0800

Not really in the sense that's relevant, here. Sure it is. Game it out. Blanket pardons for anyone executing blatantly illegal things. Congress can't/won't get rid of him. SCOTUS made this bed for all of us.

By: eustatic

eustatic — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 18:08:52 -0800

Abolish ICE. This is what they were created to do, make the Gulags

By: rrrrrrrrrt

rrrrrrrrrt — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 18:14:39 -0800

UGH

By: HiroProtagonist

HiroProtagonist — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 20:46:00 -0800

Which, let's face it, means *anybody*. QFT. If someone isn't entitled to due process, nobody is, including you.

By: The 10th Regiment of Foot

The 10th Regiment of Foot — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 06:04:06 -0800

Have you seen the elections of the past 10 years? Taking back Congress is....a stretch I have, I'm not sure what you are referring to, the only time since 1946 that a President gained congressional seats of his party in midterm elections was immediately after 9/11.

By: The 10th Regiment of Foot

The 10th Regiment of Foot — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 06:27:46 -0800

Abolish ICE. This is what they were created to do, make the Gulags I mean, kinda, but I see how you would think that. I was there, in the beginning, after 9/11, at the inception. Initially there was a lot of fumbling around by the administration to genuinely get to the bottom of what the hell happened and what failings allowed the hijackers to get in and stay in the US without recourse. There was a lot of arguing about blame and pointing of fingers. The 9/11 commission hadn't finished their report and everyone had their pet theories. Out of that mess the Bush administration deferred to the security "experts'" hawkish approach of splitting the law enforcement functions from Customs and INS into their own stand alone agency that can coordinate investigations and actions. It sorta makes sense in that context, but the drawbacks of that approach quickly became apparent after a scandal involving the drugging of deportees. The problem is that cops need oversight. Cops need non-cops to tell them that their behavior is unethical. ICE has very little oversight and what little exists comes from the DHS headquarters. When they are unethical fascists like Kristi Noem, then you get gulags and other horrors. Anyway, so not to belabor the point, if you are going to have immigration and customs laws you will need to have immigration and customs enforcement of some form. Like most police forces they need to be on a tight leash with all sorts of review by wonky policy nerds who make sure that they follow rules and ethics and due process and all of that important shit. Also for the love of god, for the millionth time, the 9/11 hijackers weren't students, please move student visa oversight somewhere else other than ICE, anywhere other than ICE. This is just such a bad fit and it's been nearly 25 years for christ's sake!

By: jy4m

jy4m — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 06:41:16 -0800

I'm gonna abolish ICE, the DHS, and every cop

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 23:38:08 -0800

Your OPSEC is clean.

By: HearHere

HearHere — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 05:13:56 -0800

[politico:] A Justice Department attorney who publicly expressed misgivings about the government's response to the erroneous deportation of a Maryland man to a high-security prison in El Salvador has been put on administrative leave, a DOJ official said Saturday

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 13:35:14 -0800

That's now the Department of Just ICE.

By: mikelieman

mikelieman — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 14:20:11 -0800

And in the middle of the night, Judge Xinis drops this Memorandum Opinion, 22 pages of "WTF, US Gov't?" -- with footnotes.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 07:10:37 -0800

Until 2025 I would have thought it quite rare for a judge to describe some claim made on behalf of the government as an "eye-popping proposition".

By: TedW

TedW — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 13:32:00 -0800

And it appears that the Supreme Court would like to think about the issue for a bit. That's not encouraging.

By: gentlyepigrams

gentlyepigrams — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 17:03:49 -0800

Out of that mess the Bush administration deferred to the security "experts'" hawkish approach of splitting the law enforcement functions from Customs and INS into their own stand alone agency that can coordinate investigations and actions. This was a big debate in the 1990s among immigration lawyers with the old Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which was the predecessor agency to ICE and USCIS. The theory among the lawyers was that if benefits were separated from enforcement you might get less of the enforcement mindset in the benefits people. Obviously nobody anticipated 9/11 when they were having that debate, but now we know the optimists were 100% wrong about how it was going to turn out.

By: jeffburdges

jeffburdges — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 14:26:48 -0800

Human Rights Watch declaration on prison conditions in El Salvador for the J.G.G. v. Trump case (via) Just some older CECOT news: At least 261 people have died in El Salvador's prisons under anti-gang crackdown (July 2024) United States Deportation Policies Expose Salvadorans to Death and Abuse (Feb 2020)

By: Nelson

Nelson — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 18:40:51 -0800

Wife of wrongly deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia forced into safe house after government posts address online

Kilmar Abrego Garcia's wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura said she began fearing for her safety and the safety of her three children after the Department of Homeland Security shared a protective order from 2021 that prominently featured her address to the department's 2.4 million followers on X. ... A statement from DHS to The Independent said "these are public documents that anyone could get access to."

The DHS post is still up on X on @DHSgov, from April 16. It's a scan of court documents, a protective order with her home address in it.