Very Interesting Developments
There was never a warrant for Khalil, the government initially started to bring Abrego Garcia home, and ICE reverses course on student visas.
Well, well, well, isn’t that interesting. A trio of stories is hitting the wires today involving attempts by the government to extra-judiciously remove people from the US without due process, while at the same time weakening higher education. None of it paints the US Government in a good light. Let’s jump in…
Sorry, We Didn’t REALLY Mean to Kick You Out. At Least Not Yet.
In a somewhat stunning reversal, attorneys for ICE have, during two separate court proceedings, stated that they were restoring student status to over 1,200 people whose status was suddenly and inexplicably removed last month, often with no notification to either the students or their schools.
According to the AP article, while some students sued for their rights, many either fled the country or stopped going to class, fearing that they would be grabbed up like Rumeysa Ozturk or Mahmoud Khalil. Understandable, if you ask me.
While this is good news in the short term, the rationale being given by the government is that this is temporary while ICE “develops a framework for terminations”. This is very reminiscent of the ham-handed handling of the Muslim Ban during T1.0, and I am sure that ICE will keep trying until they get one that the courts allow. The fact that over 100 cases were already filed against this action likely was the impetus here, especially since ICE is being eviscerated by judges in nearly every case.
Another thing to keep in mind is that foreign students generally pay full freight for their education, essentially subsidizing the scholarships offered to US students. Given the multitudinous ways the government is attacking higher education in our country, I am fairly comfortable in my concern that this isn’t the last we have heard about this particular strategy, but I will take whatever good news I can find these days.
Warrant? We Don’t Need Those for Arabs, Right?
Mahmoud Khalil’s abduction by plainclothes officers seems so long ago now with all that’s happened since. With the seemingly daily assaults on American institutions, laws, and norms, the days seem like months under the Trump regime.
That does not change the fact that Khalil was marked for removal not for committing any crime, but for his beliefs, including his “expected beliefs”, whatever the fuck that mean. On Monday his American wife gave birth to their child while Khalil remained in an ICE facility in Louisiana, forbidden by the US Government from travelling to attend the birth.
CBS News is reporting today that the government now confirms that there was never a warrant to arrest Khalil. Instead, they maintain that Khalil was a flight risk, even though he just recently earned his green card and his wife was eight months pregnant at the time of his arrest.
This new discovery, along with the absolute dearth of any sort of significant evidence worthy of the removal of his green card status simply strengthens the argument that Khalil should be released. Immediately.
We Fucked Up, So Shouldn’t We Bring Him Back? Not in Trump’s America
The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia is getting the lion’s share of the coverage with regards to the illiberal actions of the government and for good reason. Very little, if any, of what they have done rings true to our laws and our Constitution. And yet T2.0 keeps doubling down and digging the hole deeper. It has become the primary battleground pitting the forces of Trump’s autocratic intentions versus perhaps the last bulwark against him, the courts and the Judiciary.
It is against the backdrop of this conflict that The Atlantic released this bombshell report: The government, realizing their error in sending Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, initially began to do the work to bring him home. This work was abruptly stopped as the case became public and T2.0 decided to make their stand here, perhaps feeling that Americans would not be sympathetic to an (alleged) member of MS-13. The most damning paragraph, in my opinion, is this one (emphasis added):
But as criticism of the administration over its mishandling of the case spread, White House officials took over the response and began striking a far more strident tone in their public statements. They swiftly turned an admission of bureaucratic error into a political opportunity—a chance to flex executive authority and test the judicial branch’s ability to restrain presidential power. Abrego Garcia’s deportation became far more than just the case of one man; it developed into a measure of whether Donald Trump’s administration can send people—citizens or not—to foreign prisons without due process.
The entire article is excellent, and you should read it. The link provided is a gift link so you don’t need an Atlantic subscription.
Take Care and Stay Strong, Together