Politics Current Events March 13-18




Trump Administration Deports Alleged Gang Members Despite Judge’s Order​

White House says it followed court’s written ruling; judge verbally instructed planes en route to turn around​


“… During Saturday’s hearing, American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt told Boasberg that two aircraft believed to be carrying Venezuelan deportees took off from U.S. territory on Saturday. The ACLU had sued the administration earlier that day on behalf of migrants at risk of deportation.

Boasberg said Justice Department lawyers hadn’t disputed that claim, and told them that “any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.” Boasberg said his order was “something we need to make sure is complied with immediately.”

… The judge subsequently issued a written order that didn’t explicitly mention planes that were already in the air, something White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to point to Sunday.

…Typically lawyers view orders issued orally by judges as carrying full legal weight.

Senior White House and administration officials huddled on Saturday evening to make a decision about what to do with the judge’s order, and decided to go ahead with their plans, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The administration is expecting a fight at the Supreme Court quickly, this person said. …”
 


Trump Administration Deports Alleged Gang Members Despite Judge’s Order​

White House says it followed court’s written ruling; judge verbally instructed planes en route to turn around​


“… During Saturday’s hearing, American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt told Boasberg that two aircraft believed to be carrying Venezuelan deportees took off from U.S. territory on Saturday. The ACLU had sued the administration earlier that day on behalf of migrants at risk of deportation.

Boasberg said Justice Department lawyers hadn’t disputed that claim, and told them that “any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.” Boasberg said his order was “something we need to make sure is complied with immediately.”

… The judge subsequently issued a written order that didn’t explicitly mention planes that were already in the air, something White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to point to Sunday.

…Typically lawyers view orders issued orally by judges as carrying full legal weight.

Senior White House and administration officials huddled on Saturday evening to make a decision about what to do with the judge’s order, and decided to go ahead with their plans, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The administration is expecting a fight at the Supreme Court quickly, this person said. …”

“…The Justice Department swiftly asked a federal appeals court to lift Boasberg’s restraining order. And in a court filing Sunday, the administration said that it had deported some alleged gang members before the court’s Saturday evening order.

It also indicated that it plans to continue to deport migrants it deems a threat to the U.S. on other legal grounds.

… Rubio also reposted a comment from El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, that said “oopsie…too late” in reference to a news article about the judge’s order halting the deportations.

… One of the planes was still on the ground in Harlingen, Texas, an airport that has become a hub for deportation flights, when the judge verbally issued the order around 6:45 p.m. Bukele’s video shows men being escorted off that plane, which departed Texas at about 7:35 p.m. and landed in El Salvador at 1:10 a.m., according to flightradar24’s tracking information. The country of origin of those men couldn’t be determined.


The Alien Enemies Act was first passed in 1798 and has been seldom used since. The law, which allows a president during wartime to deport citizens of countries considered an enemy of the U.S., was last invoked in World War II as the legal authority for interning noncitizens of Japanese, German and Italian descent.

The administration hopes invoking the act will give it broad power to arrest and deport certain immigrants in the country illegally without a hearing in immigration court, essentially denying them due process before they are removed. Trump has grown frustrated with his team at the pace of deportationsso far.”
 

Brown University Professor Is Deported Despite a Judge’s Order​

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and Brown University professor who had a valid visa, was expelled in apparent defiance of a court order.


“…
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is a Lebanese citizen who had traveled to her home country last month to visit relatives. She was detained on Thursday when she returned from that trip to the United States, according to a court complaint filed by her cousin Yara Chehab.

Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts ordered the government on Friday evening to provide the court with 48 hours’ notice before deporting Dr. Alawieh. But she was put on a flight to Paris, presumably on her way to Lebanon.

In a second order filed Sunday morning, the judge said there was reason to believe U.S. Customs and Border Protection had willfully disobeyed his previous order to give the court notice before expelling the doctor. He said he had followed “common practice in this district as it has been for years,” and ordered the federal agency to respond to what he called “serious allegations.”

… Thomas Brown, a lawyer representing Dr. Alawieh and her employer, Brown Medicine, said that while the doctor was in Lebanon, the U.S. Consulate issued her an H-1B visa, which allows highly skilled foreign citizens to live and work in the United States. Brown Medicine, a nonprofit medical practice, had sponsored her application for the visa.


According to Ms. Chehab’s complaint, when Dr. Alawieh landed at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday, she was detained by Customs and Border Protection officers and held at the airport for 36 hours, for reasons that are unclear.

Ms. Saunders, the lawyer, said in an affidavit that she went to the airport Friday and notified Customs and Border Protection officials there — before the flight to Paris was scheduled to depart — that there was a court order barring the doctor’s expulsion. She said that the officers took no action and gave her no information until after the plane had taken off. …”
 

Brown University Professor Is Deported Despite a Judge’s Order​

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and Brown University professor who had a valid visa, was expelled in apparent defiance of a court order.


“…
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is a Lebanese citizen who had traveled to her home country last month to visit relatives. She was detained on Thursday when she returned from that trip to the United States, according to a court complaint filed by her cousin Yara Chehab.

Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts ordered the government on Friday evening to provide the court with 48 hours’ notice before deporting Dr. Alawieh. But she was put on a flight to Paris, presumably on her way to Lebanon.

In a second order filed Sunday morning, the judge said there was reason to believe U.S. Customs and Border Protection had willfully disobeyed his previous order to give the court notice before expelling the doctor. He said he had followed “common practice in this district as it has been for years,” and ordered the federal agency to respond to what he called “serious allegations.”

… Thomas Brown, a lawyer representing Dr. Alawieh and her employer, Brown Medicine, said that while the doctor was in Lebanon, the U.S. Consulate issued her an H-1B visa, which allows highly skilled foreign citizens to live and work in the United States. Brown Medicine, a nonprofit medical practice, had sponsored her application for the visa.


According to Ms. Chehab’s complaint, when Dr. Alawieh landed at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday, she was detained by Customs and Border Protection officers and held at the airport for 36 hours, for reasons that are unclear.

Ms. Saunders, the lawyer, said in an affidavit that she went to the airport Friday and notified Customs and Border Protection officials there — before the flight to Paris was scheduled to depart — that there was a court order barring the doctor’s expulsion. She said that the officers took no action and gave her no information until after the plane had taken off. …”
"Making America Great Again"

There is a shortage of American doctors working in Dr. Alawieh’s area of specialty, transplant nephrology. Foreign-born physicians play an important role in the field, according to experts.

Fear over immigration status could “harm the pipeline even more,” said Dr. George Bayliss, who works in the Brown Medicine kidney transplant program with Dr. Alawieh.
 

A bill for an act relating to mental health; modifying the definition of mental illness; adding a
definition for Trump Derangement Syndrome; amending Minnesota Statutes 2024,
sections 245.462, subdivision 20, by adding a subdivision; 245I.02, subdivision
29, by adding a subdivision.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
 

Brown University Professor Is Deported Despite a Judge’s Order​

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and Brown University professor who had a valid visa, was expelled in apparent defiance of a court order.


“…
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is a Lebanese citizen who had traveled to her home country last month to visit relatives. She was detained on Thursday when she returned from that trip to the United States, according to a court complaint filed by her cousin Yara Chehab.

Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts ordered the government on Friday evening to provide the court with 48 hours’ notice before deporting Dr. Alawieh. But she was put on a flight to Paris, presumably on her way to Lebanon.

In a second order filed Sunday morning, the judge said there was reason to believe U.S. Customs and Border Protection had willfully disobeyed his previous order to give the court notice before expelling the doctor. He said he had followed “common practice in this district as it has been for years,” and ordered the federal agency to respond to what he called “serious allegations.”

… Thomas Brown, a lawyer representing Dr. Alawieh and her employer, Brown Medicine, said that while the doctor was in Lebanon, the U.S. Consulate issued her an H-1B visa, which allows highly skilled foreign citizens to live and work in the United States. Brown Medicine, a nonprofit medical practice, had sponsored her application for the visa.


According to Ms. Chehab’s complaint, when Dr. Alawieh landed at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday, she was detained by Customs and Border Protection officers and held at the airport for 36 hours, for reasons that are unclear.

Ms. Saunders, the lawyer, said in an affidavit that she went to the airport Friday and notified Customs and Border Protection officials there — before the flight to Paris was scheduled to depart — that there was a court order barring the doctor’s expulsion. She said that the officers took no action and gave her no information until after the plane had taken off. …”

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“One week before spring break, Brown advised international community members, including visa holders and permanent residents, to postpone international travel in a campus-wide email sent on Sunday.

“Potential changes in travel restrictions and travel bans, visa procedures and processing, re-entry requirements and other travel-related delays may affect travelers’ ability to return to the U.S. as planned,” Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey wrote in the email.

He advised community members to evaluate domestic travel plans, as “it is unclear whether there may be implications also for domestic travel within the United States as the federal policy landscape continues to evolve.” …”
 


Fascism on the March



“Tonight, a DC trial judge supported Tren de Aragua terrorists over the safety of Americans. TdA is represented by the ACLU. This order disregards well-established authority regarding President Trump’s power, and it puts the public and law enforcement at risk. The Department of Justice is undeterred in its efforts to work with the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and all of our partners to stop this invasion and Make America Safe Again.”

The Trump Administration is going to war with the Courts.
 
This might be a good time to mention yet again that our current government is literally being run by Fox News talking heads, pro wrestling execs, reality show stars, conspiracy quacks and loons, college-age computer hackers and nerds with virtually no job or life experience and no expertise at all in how government agencies and programs work, and an unelected, unappointed nutcase and racist who just happens to be the world's wealthiest man, but who has developed a track record of running miserable, dysfunctional workplaces and tanking his company's stocks. And many of these appointees have a long record of drug and alcohol abuse, sexual assault, and blatant racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. And that's without even mentioning Trump himself. Anyone who thinks this is all going to end well is simply fooling themselves, imo.
"The party of law and order..."
"The party of morals and family values..."
Thats All Folks No GIF by Lil Yachty
 
These stories about the expulsion of legal residents is very concerning. Have a friend who is a US Citizen that has lived abroad for years. Just last week this friend was travelling into the US on a US passport and detained entering the US via air and questioned for 6+ hrs, without being given a reason, before finally being released. First time anything like that has ever happened to this person.
 
These stories about the expulsion of legal residents is very concerning. Have a friend who is a US Citizen that has lived abroad for years. Just last week this friend was travelling into the US on a US passport and detained entering the US via air and questioned for 6+ hrs, without being given a reason, before finally being released. First time anything like that has ever happened to this person.
WTF?

What is the ethnicity of this person?
 
Not a punchline and no she is in the US now but resides in Greenland.
Being a punchline doesn't mean it's not true. Take, for example, the "[checks notes]" meme is about -- we use that when reality is the punchline.

What does she do in Greenland? I'd imagine either a climate scientist or a foreign aid worker of some sort, either of which would put her in the administration's cross-hairs. Or they are just randomly picking people to torture. Hard to know what the fuck is going on.
 
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