A Disturbing Peek Into Trump’s Kafkaesque Immigration Courts

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

Wrong, Wrong, and Wrong Again

Today we begin with a particularly striking example of the bleak inanity of executive branch immigration courts under President Trump, first flagged by Politico’s Kyle Cheney.

The especially disturbing episode was revealed in an order yesterday by U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell of Ft. Myers, Florida, who granted a petition for a writ of habeas corpus by a Colombian national whose case was repeatedly botched by an immigration judge.

I’m not sure botched is strong enough.

The Kafkaesque tale, as recounted in Judge Polster Chappell’s order, began April 9, when Jorge Eliecer Madera Reyes was arrested by Orlando police for … opening a beer inside a convenience store … in violation of a local ordinance. His arrest brought Madera Reyes to the attention of ICE, which detained him on April 11.

Madera Reyes, who had no prior criminal history, has been in the United States since 2019, when he overstayed his visa. Since then, as Judge Polster Chappell describes it: “He has not departed the country since his 2019 arrival, and he has applied for asylum, obtained work authorization and steady employment, filed income tax returns, and developed family and community ties.”

Those are relevant facts which will be important in a moment.

When Madera Reyes sought to be released from ICE custody on bond, Immigration Judge Stuart Siegel denied his request in a flawed May 19 order that wildly misstated the facts that the denial was based on:

“There is no dispute that each of the three stated reasons for denying bond are factually incorrect,” Judge Polster Chappell wrote in her order. As we already know, Madera Reyes is not a recent arrival, he applied for asylum, and he hasn’t left the United States since he arrived. The immigration judge got each of those facts wrong.

Three strikes and you’re out. But it gets worse.

When Madera Reyes appealed, the immigration judge rejected it and “reiterated the incorrect factual basis for denying bond,” Judge Polster Chappell wrote.

Madera Reyes later managed to establish that the DHS allegations against him were incorrect, and DHS amended its charges against him. At that point, Madera Reyes renewed his request for release on bond.

No matter. The immigration judge denied bond for Madera Reyes on July 16 “without conducting a hearing and based on the same mistaken understanding of the facts,” Judge Polster Chappell wrote.

Finding that Madera Reyes had made a prima facie case that his Fifth Amendment rights had been violated, Judge Polster Chappell ordered him released within 24 hours.

Clock Is Ticking on ICE Agent Extradition

I planned to follow up on yesterday’s Morning Memo with an item on the urgency of Minnesota’s lawsuit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to force the extradition of ICE agent Christian Castro to face criminal charges for the January shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis — but Georgetown law professor Steve Vladeck has an excellent rundown this morning on why the clock is ticking:

[T]he statute that authorizes holding a fugitive for the asylum state governor’s benefit also sets a [90-day] deadline for the asylum state governor to act. But the deadline carries no consequence for the governor who blows it. The only consequence falls on the demanding state, which loses its defendant. Thus, delay isn’t a litigation risk for Governor Abbott. Delay is the remedy he almost certainly is seeking.

The 90-day deadline in Castro’s case appears to be next week. Hence Minnesota’s urgency in not just getting a court order requiring Abbott to act, but in seeking a separate order preventing the sheriff in Texas’ southernmost county who arrested Castro from releasing him.

As Vladeck notes: “Minnesota’s entirely plausible concern appears to be that release from a border town like Brownsville would allow Castro to slip into Mexico—at which point no interstate rendition warrant, however belatedly signed, would be worth much of anything.”

I just wanted to fill out that picture a little bit more because in its filing Minnesota presented somewhat more than a hypothetical fear that Castro would flee to Mexico. Jailhouse calls reveal that Spanish-fluent Castro has been “in frequent communication” with a woman in Mexico talking about marrying her and buying a house there after he’s released, Minnesota alleged:

On information and belief, law enforcement’s initial review of Castro’s Cameron County jail calls reflects that Castro has substantial ties to Mexico and there is a real risk that he may flee and avoid prosecution if he is released from custody. Castro would be released close to the Mexican border. Castro is fluent in Spanish and has been in frequent communication with a woman in Mexico, including about marrying her and buying a house in Mexico when he is released.

Gotta hand it to the writers’ room that they came up with a plot device where an ICE agent might flee across the border to Mexico to escape the U.S. criminal justice system.

After the Purge: The Sycophants

After firing inspectors general en masse, President Trump has installed sycophants as replacements and redirected their focus from the departments that they’re supposed to investigate to politicized allegations of fraud in blue states, the New York Times reports.

The Corruption: Census Bureau Edition

It’s hard to overstate how much this bogus new report that claims Trump really won the 2020 election is a corruption of the Census Bureau, it’s stellar reputation for methodological rigor, and its nonpartisan neutrality.

A Man-Child President’s Wounded Ego

The Trump-controlled Kennedy Center told a federal judge Wednesday that a tarp covering up the space where President Trump’s name was illegally bolted to the marble facade must remain indefinitely because of … reasons — including assessing damage to the stonework.

It’s not clear what “damage” it’s referring to, but Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), an ex officio board member who successfully sued to have Trump’s name removed, told the judge she suspects it’s from adding the president’s name in the first place: “The current statement also refers to vague ‘reported panel damage’—which apparently means damaged caused by the installation or removal of President Trump’s name the first time around.”

Beatty’s position remains that the tarp is Trump’s way of defying the court’s order to take his name down by complying with the literal removal but not making publicly visible on the performing arts venue it’s official name honoring President John F. Kennedy: “His name should once again be visible on the façade and Defendants’ childish refusal to accept this Court’s ruling to that effect should end now.”

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