This transcript is incredible.
Much of the focus has been on Julie Le, the attorney who essentially says, “If you hold me in contempt, I could finally sleep.” She notes sending emails in bold, 24 pt font that ICE must comply with court orders. She talks about her complete lack of training and the complete lack of process. She discusses the endless emails and conversations she has to have with her client, the government, to essentially “convince” them that they have to follow court orders. She notes with despair that every second she’s not trying to work with the court, there are people who are in custody who should be released who aren’t being released.
But I think the focus should be on the petitioners– the folks who were detained who had no criminal records and were ordered released by the courts. After hearing of Ms. Le’s account of countless email and overwhelm, Kira Kelley of the Climate Defense Project does not reply with compassion for the government. It might almost be natural, as you read Ms. Lee’s responses, to find her sympathetic– I sure did. But Ms. Kelley pulls the focus away from the “harrowing” experience of sending pleading emails to a government that will not comply with the law to the people who are harmed.
Detain first, find authority later, this is exactly their strategy, and we’ve seen this from all of our cases where there’s no warrant, there’s no probable cause. Most of my clients, they report that respondents, upon detaining them, have no idea who they are. They are pulled over for how they look or for where they are or for any number of things that don’t amount to probable cause under the U.S. Constitution.
And I would point Your Honor to two declarations in a recent filing, which if Your Honor would permit, I could file in a supplement in this case. The first is a petitioner – is an affidavit written by my client Oscar. And that was filed at Docket 67, The Advocates for Human Rights, et al., v. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, et al., Case Number 26-cv-749. And Oscar’s declaration is important for a few reasons. One, it articulates just his horrific experience throughout this proceeding. And it’s easy for us to see court orders not being complied with and the e-mails back and forth on the computer, but his affidavit really just shows what it’s like to experience that and in ways that were personally for me just sickening to read as his attorney.
That he was without food. He was without clean clothes. He was subject to physical danger, both through reckless driving of ICE agents transporting him from one location to another, watching people screaming in pain with medical neglect, being exposed to COVID. Just the conditions of his confinement; eating food that he conflated with dog food. That people are just being treated like less than human. And all of this was happening while he had a court order for his release.
And while all of this is happening, ICE agents are telling him to self-deport because he’s got no chance to get out of there other than self-deport, so he’s being deprived of access, and this is all in his affidavit. Myself and his immigration attorney, who’s here in the courtroom today, were not able to talk to him. His immigration attorney in particular made diligent efforts to ensure compliance with the court order, and these are e-mails that are in Oscar’s case. I think you’ve seen these. We’re trying to get ahold of him. We’re trying to get access to him. We’re trying to bring him home. And, meanwhile, he is sleeping on the floor, if he gets to sleep at all, and he’s being lied to, denied access to phone calls to call his loved ones or his attorneys. I would encourage Your Honor to read this declaration, and I would defer to the Court if you would like me to submit it formally in Oscar’s own case.
It is worth your time to read the entire transcript. It’s worth having an understanding of precisely how mass deportation works. We are focused on the flashy part of the initial detainment– and that part is horrific and where we can stop harms before they’re committed. But there’s so much more that is happening once people are snapped off the street.