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...
The government claims they spent a month carefully identifying children that “met the criteria” but now it’ll take another week to prove it.🤔
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...
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.
This is a hostage negotiation and the government are the kidnappers.
And the negotiators refuse to recognize we're dealing with kidnappers.
🎯
Presumption of regularity has been shrunk again.
Did the judge get to keep the children here with their parents or did they the kidnappers get away with them?
She will need to throw a few of Trump's lawyers in jail for contempt to make them produce those kids before the court...
Sooknanan then announces that she wants to take a 10 minute recess so that Ensign can go talk to DHS. She wants to know whether they are going to be deplaning the children and returning them to custody and what they expect to happen. Mr. Ensign, can you do that? Ensign: I'm certainly happy to try
If he doesn’t know anything, can we maybe talk to his manager?
I’d love to see Noem and Miller testify under oath in every one of these cases. They can lie on Fox News, but a federal judge would be less forgiving.
To what end? To scold them and give them a firm wag of the finger? They're going to lie in any venue. The law can't save us from these monsters because the law created them and this system they are using for state sponsored terrorism. (And don't even try to spin a yarn about perjury)
Yeah why bother doing anything 🤷 better to just resign ourselves to our fate and wait for the ride to the camp to come pick us up.
Definitely was my point, thanks!
If you don't want to get criticized for sounding like a defeatist, maybe try not sounding like a defeatist.
Ok
If this operation were legit the government would announce it advance. Cameras would be encouraged to film happy children being sent to reunify with their parents. It would not be done by weekend secret sneak flights. Anybody want to bet those kids are not shackled on those planes?
They are playing games with the lives of those children. And lying in the process. Red flags everywhere.
I’m very concerned about what their plan was for these children.
Dump them there and make it the Guatemalan government’s problem if they aren’t reunited or have been sent into danger. I’m also concerned that ORR will simply lock these poor political pawns up in conference rooms with little access to food/water/bathrooms or anything else.
Where are their parents? Were they deported separately? If so, to what country? So many questions!
Exactly
Sooknanan: And if you don't know or can't find out [whether the children have been deplaned], a time estimate on when the agencies can confirm would be helpful. Because then I can ask you to file a status report.
Refreshing @annabower.bsky.social every minute on a holiday weekend...
Right?! FML. Thank god for @annabower.bsky.social I could marry you
Damn shame to make the MAGAts work on a holiday weekend, innit?
You can be damn sure the judge is pissed about this very thing.
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
These poor kids are going to be (even more) traumatized than they were before. Absolutely inhumane
I’m thinks the same. They must be so scared.
And now we're on recess while Ensign calls his clients.
6 USC 279, which calls for ORR to help reunite children with a parent abroad in appropriate cases was enacted as part of Homeland Security Act of 2002. 8 USC 1232 is the TVPRA- a later-enacted statute.
TVPRA requires that UCs from noncontiguous countries “shall” be placed in removal proceedings. If children want voluntary departure there are special protections. Govt essentially claiming a 3rd category of return: “reunification” But no sign of that in law.
If 6 USC 279 authorizes reunification as DOJ claims that means ORR - which is NOT an immigration enforcement agency but an HHS agency - decides deportations. That’s just a weird read of the two statutory provisions. ORR is not in charge of deporting kids. That’s up to DHS and Immigration Judges.
Your honor, I spoke with Emil Bove who is still in charge for some reason and he says "fuck you."
Im surprised Ensign has not been fired yet.
I need just one court reporter to list him as Punxsuphoney Drew in the record.
Oh, that brutal cruel son of a bitch.
We're back. The judge asks if Ensign has an update for her. Ensign: I have confirmed that the plan is to deplane the children and to return them to the custody of Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Sooknanan asks him to file status report when that's complete
Does this mean that these children had active asylum cases before this action?
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.
Conflicting information
So his health is still in question,
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.
This is a classic example of what happens when conservative bad faith bullshit hits the buzzsaw of real life courts and law. Put your kitchen sink away and pick an actual claim of what you say happened and tell it to the judge and prove it
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.
Oh, I bet.
Receipts time!!!
Conflicting information? The government is a de facto authoritarian state that lies, cheats and steals as a matter of policy. It is not to be trusted with the most simplistic representation. It is to be held accountable from A-to-Z with utmost scrutiny. It must be resoundingly defeated.
Can't they be sanctioned for lying in these statements?
A Judge with some 🏀🏀👍
My refresh button is breaking
Sounds like it is going to be a scorcher.
Does anyone know where these planes are about to take off from? Florida? TX?
Removing children is something a certain someone did back in the 1930's... seems history repeats. And someone has been reading the wrong books, learning history incorrectly. www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=...
Conflicts with the lies the DOJ is telling about them.
Just assume the DOJ is committing perjury. It simplifies the judicial process.
Who's going to jail for loading them on the plane ?????????
The importance of Biden's appointment of, and the Senate's confirmation of (albeit by the slimmest of margins), federal judges cannot be overstated.
Thank you for this reporting
Pause and recognize that this implies that the Felon47 Administration is "resettling" Christian children to Guatemala. Where is the Talibangelical outrage on this? Also, "resettling" was to help these kids settle in America and NOT be human-trafficked to foreign death camps.
Thank you for following this for us and at some point we need to celebrate the people who are watching this closely enough that they can call a judge at 2 AM to stop it.
When I said to my son that the government now claims that the plan now is to deplane the children his eyebrows went up as he asked "Where?"
Where? To whom?
“Plans” change.
Countdown until Ensign reports all the children being human-trafficked by the Administration are in the air.
Anyone want to guess who the "client" is when he makes the phone call? My guess is that it's someone on a team of outside lawyers (not DOJ) that have been behind the scenes from the beginning. Deplane the kids, and do not say that you have to ask your clients where the kids will be taken and kept.
It's no doubt Miller and Blondi.
Ensign is such a stooge.
Special place in hell for him one day. Special place in prison for him sooner.
Thanks for all you coverage, Anna. Can you explain why the judge doesn't just have Ensign's client speak directly to the court?
Deniability. They would have to called as a witness and sworn. No one would be willing to do that.
When he says "that's my understanding," that's when you know that the reality is the opposite
And everyone (including the judge) knows that. The atty says that knowing full well that it’s a lie.
“That’s what I’ve been dispatched to tell you I believe, but they do whatever the fuck they want. Especially when it comes to children.”
@tomcartwright.bsky.social where are these planes?
Pardon if none of us believe a word that comes out of any govt attorney’s mouth related to flights
Particularly when that mouth belongs to Drew Ensign.
Thanks for your invaluable reporting work!!!!
Wtf were those kids.. Find these kids now
Didn't think I could get more shocked by the U.S., but large-scale child trafficking has me speechless.
Judge is attempting making sure that the DHS and DOJ are pinned down as much as possible. Let’s hope it has the desired effect.
I am a big fan of Judge Sparkle here. Basically saying "I'm aware of the bullshit you're going to try to pull and I am going to prevent it"
It’s like pulling teeth to get these jerks to answer questions and act.
She's not giving them any room to keep pretending and it's glorious. And thank you so much for posting.
Its sad that this needs to be said repeatedly for the government to actually understand and abide by the ruling and even then we don't know if they will actually do it.
“Try”!?!?
Try? OR Lie?
where are these planes? which airport?
Always the fucking weasel words... These are the most disingenuous assholes on the planet.
define "happy", sir.
DO OR DO NOT. THERE IS NO TRY.
Happy to try. Fucking clown.
JFK, the depth of depravity of this ghoulish regime.
Fully expect they want to just imprison these kids on the planes
Ole Drew is super chuffed to play 3-card Monte with SIX HUNDRED UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN
Narrator: In fact, he was not happy, and wasn't going to try very hard.
We need a full-fledged Nuremberg style truth and reconciliation process post Trump. And Ensign should be held to account.
Nah, we just need a long brick wall and a shitload of blindfolds.
imprison these motherfuckers
oops all gone
No punishment will be too severe for these mfers when this is over.
Arrest everyone involved
Who will care for children when they’re deplaned? There’s no caring adults for hundreds of terrified kids who have yanked around by U.S government? MAGA ICE only cares for white kids…
Not trying to have Ensign pull more nonsense like they did in Abrego Garcia.
She needs to make it equally clear that anyone involved in the removal all the way up the chain of command will be found in contempt of court and jailed until the children are returned.
Starting with the asshole in front of her.
.... and thank you @annabower.bsky.social for your dedication at reporting and documenting so many of these very significant court proceedings even over a holiday weekend.
Amen.
!!! 💙
"we" ?? define "we" ... DOJ/DHS doesn't consider you --a DOJ lawyer as nothing more than a doormat
"We certainly object to the TRO..." Translation: We wish the law did not have any meaning for limiting our cruelty and arbitrariness.
Where are their guardians in the meantime? Or are they in detention centers? This is all so fucking awful.
Judge needs to be clearer: None of the putative class of children to be removed unless I order it is allowed.