Judge who held DOJ lawyer in contempt blasts handling of immigration cases

A national justice who took the bonzer measurement of holding a authorities lawyer successful contempt of court earlier this week blasted the Justice Department for its handling of migration cases connected Friday, accusing the department's Minneapolis bureau of skirting orders and blaming staffing shortages "again, and again, and again."

The bid adds to months of sparring betwixt national judges and the Trump administration, arsenic Immigration and Customs Enforcement's wide deportation efforts origin an unprecedented flood of ineligible cases by detainees seeking to beryllium released. Several judges successful Minnesota person accused ICE of failing to travel orders successful those cases.

In a proceeding Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino held an Army lawyer who was assigned to the Justice Department successful civilian contempt. She ordered the lawyer, Matthew Isihara, to wage $500 per time until the authorities returned recognition documents to Rigoberto Soto Jimenez, who was released by ICE successful Texas without his ID past week contempt a tribunal bid requiring him to beryllium flown backmost to Minnesota with his idiosyncratic property. 

After the authorities rapidly gave backmost the man's documents, Provinzino lifted the contempt uncovering connected Friday. She said nary fines would beryllium issued against Isihara, an Army lawyer who was temporarily assigned to assistance the Justice Department past month.

But successful a nine-page order connected Friday, Provinzino sharply criticized the national government's actions successful the lawsuit — and argued it was not an isolated incident.

Provinzino said Isihara "had taken nary enactment to guarantee compliance with the Court's order, notwithstanding the information that it was his work to pass the Court's bid to ICE to effectuate [Soto Jimenez's] lawful release."

She cited Isihara's comments astatine Wednesday's hearing, wherever helium acknowledged that helium didn't instantly nonstop Provinzino's merchandise bid to ICE, and didn't get backmost to Soto Jimenez's lawyer erstwhile asked for assistance successful transporting him to Minnesota and returning his IDs. 

Isihara was apologetic astatine the hearing, saying the lawsuit "slipped done the cracks" and helium "dropped the ball." He said the U.S. Attorney's Office successful Minneapolis — which has faced a surge of ICE arrests and a question of resignations successful caller months — has been overwhelmed by the sheer fig of requests to merchandise detainees, which are known arsenic habeas corpus petitions.

Still, Provinzino rejected that defense, penning that "administrative load has ne'er been a crushed to sacrifice the law and statutory rights of individuals." 

She besides said "the Government has offered that excuse to this Court again, and again, and again (and to different judges successful this territory again,and again, and again, and again, and again, and again) to excuse its oversights and disobedience of tribunal orders successful migration habeas cases." 

Provinzino said she has been diligent with the U.S. Attorney's bureau successful the past. 

"But astatine this point, the refrain of 'understaffing' and 'too galore cases' has worn retired its welcome, peculiarly erstwhile it comes astatine the disbursal of idiosyncratic rights," she wrote. "This Court would ne'er let a backstage lawyer oregon litigant to trust connected an 'I'm excessively busy' excuse to warrant disobedience of a tribunal order. The Government is nary different."

And the justice argued that "it has go painfully wide implicit the past respective months that the attorneys moving connected migration habeas cases deficiency the basal resources and, successful immoderate cases, grooming indispensable to comply with judicial orders."

The contented has "real consequences connected existent quality beings," the justice continued. In Soto Jimenez's case, aft helium was released successful Texas without his IDs past week, helium stayed successful a structure for a nighttime until his lawyer could put a formation backmost to Minnesota, wherever the Mexican national has lived with his lawful imperishable nonmigratory woman since 2018.

Going forward, Provinzino said she expects authorities lawyers who go alert that an bid mightiness beryllium violated to pass the tribunal "promptly." She said she would "look favorably connected specified submissions" and debar holding those lawyers successful contempt.

"What the Court volition not tolerate is what happened here: disobedience and vigor soundlessness from the Government," the justice wrote. 

Jacob Rosen contributed to this report.