Sooknanan asks Ensign about legal authority for the removals. He discusses a statutory provision that authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to unite children with parents from whom they've been separated...
Replies
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..."
aug 31, 2025, 5:14 pm • 644 58 • view
Republicans see kids as roadkill on the highway to hell they are driving down.
sep 1, 2025, 4:16 am • 0 1 • view
aug 31, 2025, 5:15 pm • 18 0 • view
I'm sure each child's situation is different, but I have been wondering for a while, in general, is it most common for unaccompanied immigrant minors to be living with relatives here in the US? If not, where are they usually placed?
aug 31, 2025, 5:26 pm • 6 0 • view
Most of them would have been with a blood relation or a guardian. A double-handful might have been in foster care because their parents/family were previously deported or they were otherwise separated by the system.
aug 31, 2025, 11:05 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes
aug 31, 2025, 6:51 pm • 3 0 • view
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
aug 31, 2025, 5:16 pm • 1,047 156 • view
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
aug 31, 2025, 5:18 pm • 720 58 • view
"what I've been told" Lie and he knows it
aug 31, 2025, 5:19 pm • 32 1 • view
I have no doubt that he was told that. Swear in the liars that gave him that lie to tell.
aug 31, 2025, 5:21 pm • 9 0 • view
A month. One? Seems short, to put it mildly.
aug 31, 2025, 5:19 pm • 5 0 • view
“That’s what I’ve been told” will be the DOJ’s “I vas just followink orders” when this is all over. Ensign knows it’s bullshit. The judge knows he knows it’s bullshit.
sep 1, 2025, 12:58 pm • 0 0 • view
Well, if Ensign says that’s what he’s been told, then we’re all done here. Please commence with Labor Day festivities!
aug 31, 2025, 5:21 pm • 2 0 • view
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
aug 31, 2025, 5:20 pm • 877 83 • view
Next question for Ensign: Will you provide me a sworn declaration, under penalty of perjury, from an person with actual knowledge, that every child fits in the category you describe?
aug 31, 2025, 5:26 pm • 19 1 • view
“Class” 👍
aug 31, 2025, 5:32 pm • 0 0 • view
Sooknanan asks Ensign for his thoughts on that. He argues that the provision he cited is its own form of protection for the children -- it protects children by permitting the reunification with their parents/families.
aug 31, 2025, 5:22 pm • 564 33 • view
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?
aug 31, 2025, 5:26 pm • 841 84 • view
Here’s an idea: Send a plane to Guatemala, pick up the parents, and have them pair up with the children, with the proper paperwork, and then deport them back.
aug 31, 2025, 6:54 pm • 2 0 • view
Stop being g a fucking bigot.
aug 31, 2025, 9:03 pm • 0 0 • view
Or, a better idea, ask the kids if their parents abused or negelcted them. Why do you want kids to be abused? Seems kinda weird.
aug 31, 2025, 9:05 pm • 4 0 • view
Ensign: That will be resolved through briefing...we can submit our position on that declaration. The judge asks when he plans to file response brief. He asks to have until Friday.
aug 31, 2025, 5:26 pm • 530 29 • view
hmmm, he just said it has been a month long process identifying the children that they are sending to Guatemala and now he needs another week to brief? what clowns!
aug 31, 2025, 5:45 pm • 5 0 • view
And what will they have to say on Friday? OOPS?
aug 31, 2025, 5:28 pm • 2 0 • view
So they were going to deport the kids without evidence of the claims they just made in court. DOJ lawyers need to start having their freedom taken away by judges and the State Barr needs to start taking law licenses away.
aug 31, 2025, 5:29 pm • 10 2 • view
Sooknanan: I was thinking earlier than Friday, but if you need to get your ducks in a row and make sure you can figure out what's going on with all of these children, I'll allow it. But my order will stay in place. They're not going to be able to remove these children until you file a brief...
aug 31, 2025, 5:28 pm • 733 51 • view
The government claims they spent a month carefully identifying children that “met the criteria” but now it’ll take another week to prove it.🤔
aug 31, 2025, 6:38 pm • 3 1 • view
Sooknanan continues: They're not going to be able to remove these children until you file a brief and we have a hearing and I rule... Ensign: We understand that. We certainly object to the TRO, but we understand that would be process at this point...
aug 31, 2025, 5:29 pm • 686 56 • view
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.
aug 31, 2025, 5:31 pm • 1,173 168 • view
"we" ?? define "we" ... DOJ/DHS doesn't consider you --a DOJ lawyer as nothing more than a doormat
aug 31, 2025, 6:58 pm • 0 0 • view
"We certainly object to the TRO..." Translation: We wish the law did not have any meaning for limiting our cruelty and arbitrariness.
aug 31, 2025, 5:36 pm • 6 1 • view
Where are their guardians in the meantime? Or are they in detention centers? This is all so fucking awful.
aug 31, 2025, 5:29 pm • 9 0 • view
Judge needs to be clearer: None of the putative class of children to be removed unless I order it is allowed.
aug 31, 2025, 5:30 pm • 2 1 • view
So trump thugs can have 600 kids loaded on planes within hours but to provide evidence that the kids should be will take them a week. That doesn’t make sense.
aug 31, 2025, 5:33 pm • 11 0 • view
It only makes sense in the light that, as a private citizen, Felon47 invested money into the Epstein-Maxwell child rape human-trafficking ring and that avenue for having access to prey has dried up for the predator in the Oval Office.
aug 31, 2025, 5:43 pm • 4 1 • view
Does Ensign know if the Big Beautiful Bill has funds for a convoy of armored Good Humor trucks.
aug 31, 2025, 5:41 pm • 0 0 • view
They need a few days to retroactively create some “evidence” and threaten parents.
aug 31, 2025, 5:28 pm • 8 1 • view
Thank you, Anna. 🪴 Thanks to @sarahburris.bsky.social, your readers can hear & see what Drew Ensign sounds like when he gaslights judges and follows Emil Bove’s order: “Tell Courts ‘F*** You’ And Ignore Orders.” bsky.app/profile/plai...
aug 31, 2025, 5:31 pm • 4 1 • view
I think it's fair to say by this point, Drew Ensign isn't getting into Heaven.
aug 31, 2025, 5:31 pm • 5 0 • view
I think we’re all in hell
aug 31, 2025, 5:35 pm • 3 0 • view
lmao "can I have enought time to traffic these kids to Guatemala to the people we sold them to?"
aug 31, 2025, 5:27 pm • 13 0 • view
@thatcattc.bsky.social !!
aug 31, 2025, 6:44 pm • 0 1 • view
Sooknanan: "How does that factual discrepancy get resolved?" Ensign: "We just repeat the same lie over and over until you give up."
aug 31, 2025, 5:32 pm • 18 0 • view
Proof by repeated assertion has been a favorite of the federal government this year.
aug 31, 2025, 7:21 pm • 6 0 • view
There was a time when Republicans were opposed to reuniting families internationally. bsky.app/profile/coul...
aug 31, 2025, 10:51 pm • 0 0 • view
Reunification is a helluva euphemism
aug 31, 2025, 5:24 pm • 14 1 • view
Especially when it’s conducted in secret without the subjects, their guardians, their lawyers, knowing anything about the manoeuvres to effectuate it.
aug 31, 2025, 5:27 pm • 9 0 • view
Safety first 🤡
aug 31, 2025, 5:28 pm • 2 0 • view
omgggggg these evil shits are seriously now using "FAMILY REUNIFICATION" as a rallying cry pretext to DEPORT KIDS. how do they sleep at night how do they even love their own families???
aug 31, 2025, 9:55 pm • 0 1 • view
Additional would-be child traffickers associated with Trump? Release the Epstein files!
aug 31, 2025, 5:35 pm • 2 0 • view
If the government is so concerned about the welfare of children and reunification with their parents perhaps they should stop physically ripping them apart.
aug 31, 2025, 5:27 pm • 9 0 • view
Creating precedent for “reunification” by kidnapping parents is fucking wild
aug 31, 2025, 5:32 pm • 3 0 • view
Most of these children don’t have reliable guardians to be reunited with.
aug 31, 2025, 6:38 pm • 1 0 • view
Exactly.
aug 31, 2025, 8:08 pm • 1 0 • view
Your Honor, I move that Ensign be excommunicated from the human race
aug 31, 2025, 8:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Doesn't really make sense either. If you id'd one plane worth of children with their parents, why would you wait for more planes-worth before sending them back?
aug 31, 2025, 5:22 pm • 10 0 • view
“Through the government of Guatemala, it's been a month long process to ID children who meet criteria” Yet the children and their legal guardians and legal representatives know NOTHING cause the DHS want it to be a surprise and adventure for them 🙄
aug 31, 2025, 5:22 pm • 5 0 • view
Indirectly the govt of Guatemala told someone who told Ensign…
aug 31, 2025, 5:21 pm • 1 0 • view
I'm sure it was the sister of a friend of my cousin's babysitter....
aug 31, 2025, 5:24 pm • 1 0 • view
"You wouldn't know her. I met her in Niagara Falls. She's from Canada."
aug 31, 2025, 5:39 pm • 2 0 • view
Well, shouldn’t they have some sort of government documentation from Guatemala requesting the return of these children if that’s the case
aug 31, 2025, 5:22 pm • 9 0 • view
"that's what I've been told" does not cut it, Mr Ensign. What to YOU have in writing, on official letterhead? (that's me asking the question)
aug 31, 2025, 6:56 pm • 0 0 • view
🐂💩
aug 31, 2025, 5:19 pm • 3 0 • view
"that's what I've been told" is the new "I was just following orders"
aug 31, 2025, 10:25 pm • 1 0 • view
This administration is covering for Donald Trump and Jeff Epstein trafficking children for sex. They’re coddling Putin, who’s kidnapped nearly a million Ukrainian kids during his illegal invasion and occupation. And we’re now watching them kidnap kids and deport them with zero proof as to where 🥵
aug 31, 2025, 5:59 pm • 0 0 • view
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_a... #notinourname #GOPedos
aug 31, 2025, 5:59 pm • 1 0 • view
How did they get separated to start with? Their track record with losing children isn’t good
aug 31, 2025, 10:45 pm • 0 0 • view
“….what I’ve been told.” Not likely. A government (here, Guatemala’s) would not initiate an operation of this size based on verbal communications. There would be something written down — and communicating that to a US government attorney would be a simple matter.
aug 31, 2025, 5:22 pm • 18 0 • view
Liar
aug 31, 2025, 5:36 pm • 0 0 • view
And somehow, plaintiffs' attorneys are unaware of this month long process. This doesn't pass the smell test.
aug 31, 2025, 5:21 pm • 5 1 • view
“That’s what I have been told” is not an answer.
aug 31, 2025, 6:13 pm • 2 0 • view
Based on everything, safer to go with presumption of irregularity.
aug 31, 2025, 5:19 pm • 3 0 • view
If it takes a month just to ID kids for return, something’s broken. Families deserve clarity, not red tape and vague answers. Children aren’t paperwork- they’re lives in limbo. #HumanRights #Immigration #Accountability
aug 31, 2025, 5:48 pm • 2 0 • view
We can just assume that this regime will lie and cheat and act in bad faith every day of its existence! They want their meddling to extend into every facet of our lives and exert control over society like the most authoritarian regimes do! Cruelty is what they do The Trump regime cannot be trusted!
aug 31, 2025, 5:39 pm • 2 0 • view
Without actual consequences for the lawyers making these BS claims in court this will not stop.
aug 31, 2025, 5:26 pm • 9 0 • view
omg never thought I'd have to read court case stuff on a Sunday
aug 31, 2025, 9:52 pm • 0 0 • view
Sounds more believable than all of their parents are there and the government wants them returned. That's my understanding sounds like plausible deniability. So who's lying?
aug 31, 2025, 10:27 pm • 0 0 • view
👍🏼 Judge Sooknanan!
aug 31, 2025, 6:34 pm • 5 0 • view
For how much and how did they determine it’s their parents or guardians?
aug 31, 2025, 5:15 pm • 11 0 • view
Guatamalian-selected guardians?
aug 31, 2025, 5:20 pm • 2 0 • view
Just stop teaching Evidence in law school because it has become irrelevant. (And because the hearsay rule is very confusing.)
aug 31, 2025, 5:17 pm • 14 1 • view
Same for Con Law.😳
aug 31, 2025, 5:23 pm • 2 0 • view
Same for Legal Ethics
aug 31, 2025, 6:22 pm • 0 0 • view
Swear him in.
aug 31, 2025, 5:15 pm • 20 0 • view
I do believe that
aug 31, 2025, 5:33 pm • 0 0 • view
Ensign is lying to the Court.
aug 31, 2025, 6:34 pm • 10 0 • view
Proof
aug 31, 2025, 5:15 pm • 21 0 • view
When the DoJ lies like this, the court should prove that it is a lie, and consider EVERY statement made by them going forward as a lie afterwards
aug 31, 2025, 5:28 pm • 26 2 • view
Ensign and every DOJ Rep is just undistilled evil.
aug 31, 2025, 9:52 pm • 3 0 • view
"We're going to tell a blatant lie and we demand five days so you can get less angry at us for lying." Seems to me if they had legal cause for these flights, they wouldn't need five days to figure out what that is.
aug 31, 2025, 10:12 pm • 1 0 • view
aug 31, 2025, 5:17 pm • 2 0 • view