Lawmakers Warn of a Constitutional Crisis as Refugees and Green-card Holders Remain in Detention

[deminks]

https://www.thenation.com/article/lawmakers-warn-of-a-constitutional-crisis-as-refugees-and-green-card-holders-remain-in-detention/

Airports around the country were transformed into ad-hoc legal centers over the weekend, as attorneys continued furiously to file petitions to free detained clients who were ensnared by President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting entry into the United States. Attorneys and politicians charged that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents were flouting the federal judiciary by not allowing lawyers access to detainees, not releasing the names of those in detention, and pressuring those in detention to sign papers to speed up their removal from the U.S.

The chaotic clash between an executive branch intent on intensifying its war on foreigners and a judiciary committed to Constitutional protections began on Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Federal judges around the United States ruled that President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting refugees and Muslims must not be enforced—at least for now—against travelers with valid visas who were on their way to the United States at the time the order was issued. First a judge in New York, and then judges in Boston, Seattle, Alexandria, and Los Angeles issued rulings to temporarily stay Trump’s executive order as it winds through the court system, protecting detainees in airports, for now, from deportation.

Protesters and lawyers celebrated the rulings. The Boston ruling was the broadest in scope: the judges there said that refugees with valid legal papers as well as lawful immigrants from the seven Muslim-majority countries named in the Trump order must be allowed into the country without being detained, at least for the next week, until another hearing is held. However, it seems the order only applied to Boston, not the whole country. The Los Angeles ruling was different than the others in that it directed the U.S. government to permit the return of a visa-holder from Iran who had already been deported under the executive order.

But on Sunday, the sense of victory for civil liberties advocates was tempered by the fact that CBP agents continued to detain immigrants and refugees. At least in New York, the judge’s ruling did not explicitly bar the continued detention of travelers, although it did rule that they could not be deported. However, some lawyers and advocates at John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport argued that federal agents should not impede the entry of those with legal papers, and that prolonged detention violated due process rights.

(snip)

“This is a constitutional crisis that has been visited upon us by the 45th president of the United States of America, who apparently doesn’t respect the rule of law or understand the rule of law,” said Jeffries. He added that the federal judge in New York had instructed CBP to release a list of names of detainees. But that also did not happen, an apparent violation.

Similar scenes played out at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. On Saturday night, Senator Cory Booker arrived at the airport to try to get detainees access to lawyers, but CBP agents continued to block this from happening. And on Sunday, four members of Congress—Representatives Don Beyer, Gerry Connolly, John Delaney and Jamie Raskin—and lawyers again tried to access detainees at Dulles, only to be turned away by CBP agents.

(end snip)

[Kber]

1. ACLU needs to go back

And ask for more clarity.

[Ms. Toad]

2. ACLU needs to go back and request they be held in contempt.

[Kber]

3. 100%!