Just asking questions. Senior Editor, Lawfaremedia.org. Send story ideas and tips to anna.bower@lawfaremedia.org Signal username: annabower.24
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I think he was reunited with his father *in the U.S.* at one point, but he didn’t leave the country until the asylum/legal process was exhausted And I have no idea if the Secretary of Homeland Security relied on 279(b)(1)(H) at any point during all of that
Didn’t Gonzales go through an entire appeals process??
During the hearing yesterday, Ensign said: “This has been done previously. This is not a new use of this authority. Prior Secretaries have done precisely this.” He didn't cite specific examples. What is he talking about? When did prior Secretaries do this? bsky.app/profile/anna...
During the hearing yesterday, Ensign said: “This has been done previously. This is not a new use of this authority. Prior Secretaries have done precisely this.” He didn't cite specific examples. What is he talking about? When did prior Secretaries do this? bsky.app/profile/anna...
They’re in the custody of ORR, but not necessarily in the same place. ORR places them in foster care programs and care facilities in various states. So some could have further to travel, etc.
Trump on RFK Jr., the CDC, and vaccines (a translation). He seems to be saying that he was shown data about COVID19 vaccines being safe and effective, but that the pharma companies didn’t show those amazing data to anyone else, like RFK Jr. He thinks this is why there is a “mess” at CDC.
Lots of people with questions about this The government said there were 76 putative class members (children) loaded on planes yesterday But the putative class covered by the judge’s order isn’t limited to kids that were loaded on planes for imminent deportation That’s why the ~600 estimate
Right
Sorry I should’ve said all 76 putative class members *who were loaded on the planes.* The 600 number was the estimated number of putative class members writ large — not just the kids who were loaded on planes yesterday
The number of kids on the planes is smaller than the number of kids in the putative class of people covered by the judge’s TRO
Today, Judge Sooknanan held an emergency hearing in a lawsuit filed to challenge the Trump administration's removal of unaccompanied minors to Guatemala. Read @annabower.bsky.social's live blog from the hearing: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/emer...
RIGHT??? It’s crazy.
With that, I'm signing off for a bit to try and enjoy what's left of Labor Day. If you're just catching up, here's my live coverage of yesterday's hearing: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/emer...
All 76 of the putative class members
It makes me emotional to see Judge Sooknanan showing that she values each individual child’s life at a moment when this administration is doing exactly the opposite
bsky.app/profile/anna...
JUST IN: Drew Ensign, on behalf of DOJ, reports that all of the migrant children have been returned to ORR custody.
NEW: Judge Sooknanan is back at it. She orders DOJ to file at fifth status report to address whether the two children discussed in its previous report have been returned to ORR custody. Status report due at 12 noon today.
The ORR foster care/care facilities with custody of the kids received notices telling them that the children needed to be ready to leave in 2 hours. Some of the attorneys for the kids received notices, too.
I mean yeah, there’s that too. And clearly some of these kids have indications of parental abuse/neglect etc. Ensign said he wanted to brief the matter/file a response to those issues…he didn’t seem like have an explanation
Going after the judges again:
*Sorry I mean notice sent to ATTORNEYS (but they also sent different notices to the ORR care providers)
Yeah, that, too. Weirdly, Ensign told the judge that this authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to reunify migrant children with parents abroad. (And I specifically remember him saying that bc I was like..huh????????) But notice sent by ORR to care providers said it was working w/ DHS
![IMMEDIATE ATTN: REUNIFICATION OF UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN NOTICE TO ATTORNEYS OF RECORD You are receiving this notice as the attorney of record for [UAC Name]. The Government of Guatemala has requested the return of certain unaccompanied alien children in federal custody for the purposes of reunifying the UAC with suitable family members. The United States Government is determined to honor this request, and to that end ORR is cooperating with interagency partners at the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice/Executive Office for Immigration Review to reunify UAC who meet the following parameters with their parents) in Guatemala, under ORR's authority at 6 U.S.C. 279(b)(1)(H): • Child is a national of Guatemala; Child does not have a parent or legal guardian in the United States who is sponsoring the child; • Child has a parent or legal guardian in Guatemala; Child does not have credible fear claim or a pending asylum case; ORR is assured the child will not be trafficked upon their return; Child is medically cleared for travel; Child does not have indications of being a victim of trafficking; and • Child does not have indications of child abuse/neglect perpetrated by a parent/legal guardian. ORR has conducted an evaluation and determined that [UAC Name] has been identified as meeting the above criteria as of the time of this note. For children for whom an NTA has been filed with an Immigration Court. This communication is provided as advance notice that removal proceedings may be dismissed to support the prompt repatriation of the child. As a reminder, ORR is not a party to the immigration proceedings of the child and is unable to confirm the possible outcome of individual removal proceedings. ORR expects repatriation travel to begin on Sunday, August 31, 2025. If you have reason to suspect that your client does not meet the above criteria, please contact ORR at ORRGuatemalaReunification@acf.hhs.gov and let the ICE Chief Counsel's Office know as …](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:t4x2ruk2qmob2b2cx55h4v7r/bafkreic75epqzed7pxcvehz276xtccuco6sxim36fnnnx7tmmhvon6tywi@jpeg "Click to view full size")
Many of them were in foster care homes or facilities run by ORR contractors. The care homes are all over, not just in one state. So it would take longer depending on where they're being returned
NEW: Judge Sooknanan is back at it. She orders DOJ to file at fifth status report to address whether the two children discussed in its previous report have been returned to ORR custody. Status report due at 12 noon today.
2, still waiting
That’s what I thought (but maybe I’m missing something).
In related news, I’ve discovered a provision of law that allows the Secretary of Transportation to summarily abolish cars and order construction of high-speed railways wherever he feels like it
…The government’s argument seems crazy to me because, among other things, it suggests that 6 U.S.C. 279(b)(1)(H) displaces or overrides processes set out in statutes like the TVPRA bsky.app/profile/anna...
Judge Sooknanan asked Ensign about this during the hearing and tbh even he seemed reluctant to take the view that the provision he cited overrides all the other statutory protections… He tried to argue that the Title 6 provision is “its own form of protection”?? bsky.app/profile/anna...
Judge Sooknanan asked Ensign about this during the hearing and tbh even he seemed reluctant to take the view that the provision he cited overrides all the other statutory protections… He tried to argue that the Title 6 provision is “its own form of protection”?? bsky.app/profile/anna...
…The government’s argument seems crazy to me because, among other things, it suggests that 6 U.S.C. 279(b)(1)(H) displaces or overrides processes set out in statutes like the TVPRA bsky.app/profile/anna...
There’s a bunch of statutory protections that specifically apply to removals of unaccompanied migrant children. But DOJ argues that 6 U.S.C. 279(B)(1)(H) establishes an independent basis for removal in order to “reunify” kids w/ a parent abroad… bsky.app/profile/joed...
Right and it’s insane to suggest that the title 6 provision displaces that!!!
This is the provision Ensign cited as the basis for the government's authority to summarily remove unaccompanied migrant children. I’d love to hear from immigration lawyers, but having briefly looked at it… it’s so frivolous it’d be laughable if it weren’t so cruel. (Am I wrong??)
I'm actually not sure that I'd take this bet myself but I wouldn't be surprised if she did that bsky.app/profile/anna...
I'm actually not sure that I'd take this bet myself but I wouldn't be surprised if she did that bsky.app/profile/anna...
Who wants to bet that Sooknanan orders Ensign to file two separate status reports the minute each of the last two kids is back in ORR custody
UPDATE: In its latest status report, DOJ says that three of the five migrant children discussed in his previous status report have now been returned to ORR custody. Drew Ensign says that he'll file another status report tomorrow when the two remaining children are in ORR custody.
MORE: Sparkle Sooknanan is still awake -- and she wants a fourth status report from DOJ. The judge orders the government to update her when all putative class members have been returned to ORR custody.
UPDATE: DOJ says that all but 4 of the unaccompanied migrant children have been returned to ORR custody. Transfer of the remaining four children is expected at approximately 11:00 p.m.
Sad news about Robert Mueller.
Minute Order: The court is taking a nap
I guess it's possible she took a nap after the hearing this afternoon but...I suspect that she did not.
By the time DOJ files this status report, Judge Sooknanan will have been awake for nearly 20 hours.
bsky.app/profile/anna...
bsky.app/profile/anna...
This is what happens when you obliterate the presumption of regularity. Endless homework assignments because the court can't trust the government to follow orders in good faith.
MORE: Judge Sooknanan order DOJ to file yet another status report. She sets 10:45 pm deadline for Ensign to address whether all of the children have been returned to ORR custody.
I take this to refer to the status of the class members who were loaded on planes. But the actual class of children covered by the TRO isn't limited to those who were put on planes today (see Judge Sooknanan's order below)
UPDATE: DOJ says it expects that the children will be returned to ORR by 10:30 pm. The report also offers some clarity on how many children were loaded on planes (76, purportedly). (But the putative class isn't limited to those put on planes today -- plaintiffs estimate # in the hundreds)
Today I learned that Drew Ensign doesn’t follow me on Bluesky
Bahahahahaha www.wired.com/story/cantor...
bsky.app/profile/anna...
MORE: Judge Sooknanan orders further status report from DOJ, setting 8:30 p.m. deadline to address whether all of the unaccompanied children have been returned to the custody of HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Anna has had excellent coverage of this developing case in which the Trump administration tried to use the holiday weekend to secretly and illegally deport children.
“What independence means is that the technocrats at the Central Bank use economic reasoning, data” to achieve economic goals, says Fmr. Fed Chair & Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen. ‘Americans need to worry’ about political interference. It’s “a recipe for runaway inflation.” #Velshi
We're still awaiting a status report from the plaintiffs on their understanding of whether the class members have been deplaned and moved to ORR. (Possible they were waiting for DOJ's status report before filing.) bsky.app/profile/anna...
We're still awaiting a status report from the plaintiffs on their understanding of whether the class members have been deplaned and moved to ORR. (Possible they were waiting for DOJ's status report before filing.) bsky.app/profile/anna...
bsky.app/profile/anna...
UPDATE: Drew Ensign, on behalf of DOJ, says that "all of the class members that were on planes today have been deplaned and are in the process of being returned to ORR custody." He add that he didn't file by 4 p.m. because he wasn't aware of the court's order setting that deadline.
Thanks Chris! (And happy Labor Day! 😂)
when a judge gets woken up at two in the morning to deal with your bullshit it is generally advisable to stop producing new bullshit such that they can get some sleep at some point the next day
evergreen post
Ted is Rudy’s longtime comms guy/body man
Chat is it good to wake up a judge at 2:30 am on a long weekend because you're flagrantly breaking the law and then ignoring the deadline she set
JUST IN: Judge Sooknanan ordered the government to file a status report by 4 pm to address whether the children have been deplaned. DOJ blew the deadline. Now she orders them to show cause why they didn’t file the report in time — and sets new 6:30 pm deadline.
In one, the child says that her parents [in Guatemala] recently received a strange call from someone with the US government, telling them that he or she would be deported with a larger group of people. "Since my parents told me this news, I feel terrible," the declarant says.
The government has argued that the children are simply being reunited with their parents. But Sooknanan reads from a series of declarations that seem inconsistent with that claim.
Sooknanan then says that she had an opportunity during the break to read some of the declarations filed by the named plaintiffs. She wants to read from them because they underscore the conflicting information she's received from the government about the children they want to remove.
Extraordinary thread about an extraordinary hearing, prompted by the Trump DHS trying to sneak hundreds of unaccompanied children out of the country to Guatemala on a holiday weekend. The government’s lawyer is sure it’s all legal, but needs 5 days to explain how. By @annabower.bsky.social
(During today’s hearing, the judge said that her clerks have also been up since around 2:30 a.m., when she called them about the emergency motion for a temporary restraining order.) bsky.app/profile/anna...
(During today’s hearing, the judge said that her clerks have also been up since around 2:30 a.m., when she called them about the emergency motion for a temporary restraining order.) bsky.app/profile/anna...
Pour one out for Judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s clerks this Labor Day weekend
Sparkle Sooknanan has the best name of any Article III judge imo
This is the second judge in a week that has brought up the fact that the government can't be trusted with clear instructions - likely because the government ignored Judge Boasberg's order to turn the planes around last March saying "verbal orders from judges don't count."
And a huge thank you to @annabower.bsky.social , @kyledcheney.bsky.social , @joshuajfriedman.com and other reporters who chronicled today’s hearing live, so we could track the malfeasance in real time. Here is Bower’s full report www.lawfaremedia.org/article/emer...
Thanks for sharing @bgrueskin.bsky.social!
If you prefer to read this thread on our site, here’s the link: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/emer...
We're back and Sooknanan asks if any planes have taken off. Ensign says all of the planes are on the ground -- one of them might have taken off and turned around. He's not sure. His understanding is that if that's the case, plane has returned.
This whole scenario feels like it's straight outta the government's Alien Enemies Act/J.G.G. playbook. In J.G.G., Boasberg entered TRO barring removal of named plaintiffs and set weekend emergency hearing on certification of class. But DHS started removing people just before/during hearing...
NEW: During an emergency hearing on Sunday afternoon, Judge Sparkle Sooknanan temporarily blocked the Trump administration's plans to deport hundreds of unaccompanied Guatemalan children. Read my live coverage of the hearing on @lawfaremedia.org: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/emer...
The LGML case came very close to being JGG redux. But just before the hearing began, the judge decided not to wait. She entered a TRO barring removal of all the children. That made all the difference: DHS already had the kids loaded on planes. One plane even took off (then turned around).
NEW: The trump administration attempted to remove 600 terrified unaccompanied minors to Guatemala in the middle of the night on a holiday weekend. Judge Sooknanan stopped it. My latest: www.muellershewrote.com/p/the-sookna...
Anna’s threads on these legal proceedings are great. If you follow me you have likely seen me repost more than one. More info about the non-profit she does this work through:
Thanks for sharing, Rich!
Judge Sooknanan to Ensign: And even now that the government has appeared, you're telling me that even though you think you have the authority to do this, and that what you're trying to do here is unify families, not violate the law, you need five days to respond.
Judge Sooknanan continues her monologue: And so, absent action and intervention by the court, all of those children would have been returned to Guatemala, potentially to extremely dangerous situations.
Ensign: In terms of the immediate question of whether flights are leaving, they will not be leaving. Sooknanan: Okay, great. I think the main thing is a representation that the plan is to deplane and then return those kids to where they were prior
Sooknanan talks about crafting her TRO to ensure that the children aren't removed until briefing is complete and she can rule. I do not want there to be any ambiguity about what I am ordering or what the government is to do down the road, she says.
Sooknanan: I have counsel telling me that there are children whose parents did not request their return to Guatemala. I have declaration representations contrary to what you're telling me. How does that [factual discrepancy] get resolved?
Sooknanan: And from the plaintiff's perspective, you do not think that that's true? Plaintiff's counsel: We know that is not true for all the children in the class...and even if it were, the provisions the government cites as legal basis does not override other protections in the statute
Sooknanan: So to be clear, you are representing that all of the children who were put on the planes are children whose parents have requested their return? Ensign: That's what I've been told...Through the government of Guatemala, it's been a month long process to ID children who meet criteria
Ensign: "The Government of Guatemala has requested the return of these children, and all of these children have their parents or guardians in Guatemala who are requesting their return..."
Judge Sooknanan isn't buying it... The plaintiffs are telling me, she says, that the children do not want to go back to Guatemala, that no request has been made, and that they fear returning to Guatemala, and may be subject to harm
Woulda been nice if we had some contempt proceedings underway by now
And we're done. Thanks to all who followed along on this Labor Day weekend. If you appreciate @lawfaremedia.org's live coverage of court proceedings, I hope you'll consider supporting our non-profit newsroom. See you next time! givebutter.com/journalism/a...
And we're done. Thanks to all who followed along on this Labor Day weekend. If you appreciate @lawfaremedia.org's live coverage of court proceedings, I hope you'll consider supporting our non-profit newsroom. See you next time! givebutter.com/journalism/a...
Judge Sooknanan: I will look for the government's status report letting me know that the children have been deplaned and returned to ORR custody. Ensign, for his part, says the government "obviously" believes these actions are lawful and that he looks forward to setting out why in the brief.
Judge Sooknanan: "These children are going to be deplaned. They're going to be returned to ORR custody. And no attempts will be made to remove them from ORR custody and remove them to Guatemala, in light of my order, while these preliminary emergency proceedings are pending."