All articles tagged with #habeas corpus
Federal immigration agents are intercepting individuals immediately after judges order their release from detention in Minnesota. Attorneys describe this as a 'bait-and-switch' tactic where detainees are handed their belongings at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building only to be recaptured by waiting agents. This strategy follows the end of Operation Metro Surge and aims to fulfill deportation quotas despite court orders.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has rejected a lower court's 2024 ruling that death row inmate Melissa Lucio is actually innocent of her daughter's 2007 death. The high court dismissed claims of prosecutorial misconduct and new medical evidence, with four judges dissenting. Lucio's attorneys plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Senior White House officials discussed suspending habeas corpus, a constitutional protection against unlawful detention, to accelerate mass deportations of undocumented immigrants; the idea, linked to Stephen Miller and encouraged by Trump, faced internal scrutiny, and legal experts say such a suspension would require Congress.
Leaked memos reveal a White House push to suspend habeas corpus for migrants championed by Stephen Miller and JD Vance, warned against by Will Scharf as legally risky; the plan never advanced, but the administration pursued other hardline immigration measures, including ICE detentions and denying bond hearings, contributing to a near-10,000% rise in habeas petitions and sparking internal White House alarm as reporters chronicled the clash.
The Board of Immigration Appeals ruled Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia-educated pro-Palestinian activist and lawful permanent resident, is removable and issued a final removal order that could send him to Syria or Algeria; Khalil cannot be removed while his habeas corpus case is in the Third Circuit, and his team plans to appeal to the Fifth Circuit. The ACLU says the decision targets his First Amendment speech and cites ongoing political retaliation concerns, highlighting tensions between immigration enforcement and constitutional rights.
Nashville Noticias reporter Estefany Rodríguez was released on a $10,000 bond from ICE custody after more than two weeks of detention in Louisiana; her habeas petition and ongoing immigration case continue, with potential discovery and an injunction against re-detention being explored. ICE may continue removal proceedings, and Rodríguez is pursuing asylum and an adjustment to status through marriage to Alejandro Medina III, with further briefs on mootness and other legal steps forthcoming before Judge Eli Richardson.
With the Trump administration scaling back its hardline immigration enforcement, habeas petitions from ICE detainees peaked during Operation Metro Surge but have since fallen to about 200 per day by early March, a trend mirrored by DHS arrest data as federal courts wrestle with mass detention legality and DOJ workloads ease after the crackdown.
ICE detained Nashville Noticias journalist Estefany Rodríguez, prompting a habeas corpus petition and allegations that the arrest was retaliation for her reporting; prosecutors say an administrative warrant existed, but court filings show a crumpled, apparently unserved warrant with missing service details, triggering a judge to order show-cause briefing.
A federal judge in Minnesota held an Army lawyer in civil contempt for failing to relay a court order to ICE in the case of Rigoberto Soto Jimenez, then condemned the DOJ's handling of immigration habeas cases as overwhelmed by staffing and processing gaps, warning that such delays have real consequences on real human beings; after the government promptly returned Soto Jimenez's documents, the contempt was lifted with no fines, but the judge urged prompt reporting of potential violations going forward.
Since December, Operation Metro Surge has generated over 1,000 habeas corpus petitions in Minnesota, with federal judges frequently ordering detainees released or given bond hearings. A decentralized, volunteer group of mostly non-immigration lawyers has mobilized to represent immigrants facing detention, even as many are transferred out of state and the administration faces mounting court scrutiny over mass detention policies.
A federal judge in Minnesota found a Justice Department lawyer in civil contempt for failing to return a detained immigrant’s identification documents and to release him as ordered, imposing a $500 daily fine to begin Friday. The ruling highlights growing judicial frustration with the Trump-era administration’s compliance in habeas cases amid sweeping immigration actions, and it may mark one of the first contempt findings against a Trump administration official in this term.
A Reuters investigation found judges have ruled ICE detainees were held illegally more than 4,400 times since October, as the Trump administration expanded mass deportations and ICE custody rose to about 68,000. The administration pursued aggressive arrest quotas, while habeas petitions topped 20,000, with hundreds of court orders violated and officials urged to be held accountable for widespread due-process violations.
Minnesota federal courts are overwhelmed by a surge of immigration-related habeas cases tied to the Trump administration’s crackdown. Prosecutors say the case load, limited training, and detainee backlogs have stretched staff, with at least one DOJ attorney bluntly telling a judge, 'The system sucks. This job sucks.' The hearing before Judge Jerry Blackwell highlighted the government’s failure to follow court orders to release detainees and underscored that agencies must operate within constitutional limits, a concern echoed by judges nationwide.
Julie Le, an ICE attorney, was removed from her Minnesota detail after publicly telling a federal court that ‘this job sucks’ while criticizing DHS for not complying with court orders to release detainees. She testified she moved to the Minnesota US attorney’s office to handle habeas petitions and had previously offered to resign, but stayed due to lack of a replacement. The hearing highlighted ongoing scrutiny of ICE operations in Minnesota, including detentions of non-criminal detainees, as about 700 federal agents were slated to leave Minnesota (leaving roughly 2,000 on the ground).
Federal judge Fred Biery grants habeas relief for 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, turning a potentially routine order into a pointed rebuke of the Trump administration’s expansive view of executive power by weaving literature, history, and Scripture into a swift, morality-informed constitutional argument.