ICE Promised A MN Supreme Court Justice It Would Stop Raiding Courthouses. It Immediately Broke That Promise.

from the if-not-rogue-then-why-rogue-shaped dept

Checks and balances. That’s the mantra. That’s what makes America great. That’s the system we deployed to prevent being just another iteration of the British empire.

It was never perfect, but it seemed to get the job done most of the time. The gentleman’s agreement underlying this system tended to hold up even when bad faith abounded.

It’s just not working anymore. The legislative branch — under a GOP majority — has basically decided to relinquish all of its power to the executive branch. The judicial branch has made its feelings known about the administration’s refusal to act in good faith, but really hasn’t done anything to prevent it from continuing to behave like an extended middle finger to the rule of law.

This government cannot be trusted. That would mean something if it actually seemed to care about being trusted. It doesn’t. It is a law unto itself, almost completely devoid of oversight.

This government continues to pretend it’s in the business of deporting dangerous foreigners from this country. Its actions say otherwise. A government that just wanted to rid the nation of dangerous criminals wouldn’t need to hang around courthouses to ambush migrants who are following the rules they’re supposed to follow to be allowed to remain in the United States. A government that isn’t beholden to racists and a red-tied megalomaniac wouldn’t send government lawyers to dismiss pending immigration cases just so ICE officers can arrest people for not being born here.

Trump’s Minnesota revenge tour may be drawing to a close, but that doesn’t mean his administration officials and officers won’t keep trying to do whatever they can to punish people in “blue” states simply for living there.

Nazi cosplayer/Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino may have been sent back to the border for being a bit too much now that federal officers are routinely murdering people. But the ICE agents remaining in Minnesota are better people than they were a few weeks ago. And “border czar” Tom Homan isn’t much of an upgrade. Being a relative moderate in a sea of anti-migrant extremists just means Homan’s probably headed for a demotion or dismissal himself.

A Minnesota judge tried to put a few fingers in the anti-migrant dike recently, as Jeff Day reports for the Minnesota Star Tribune:

On Feb. 6, [Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie] Hudson met with Homan and ICE St. Paul field office Director Sam Olson to make several requests of the federal government including: that ICE no longer conduct operations inside Minnesota courthouses; that if they need to operate inside a courthouse they do it in “low-traffic areas” and not inside courtrooms; that ICE agents not bring long guns into courthouses; that ICE coordinate with local sheriff’s offices before conducting operations at or near courthouses; and that ICE provide a local point of contact to improve communication with the courts.

Hudson’s requests were largely accepted, according to Kyle Christopherson, spokesperson for the Minnesota Judicial Branch, who confirmed details of the meeting and the agreement.

Homan and Olson made several commitments, including to conduct future operations outside of courthouses, “unless safety requires officers to enter,” and that Olson would serve as a local point of contact for the courts with federal agents. Homan agreed that ICE agents would not make arrests inside courtrooms and that it was not ICE policy to bring long guns into courthouses.

Any government agency not beholden to racist asshats like Stephen Miller and his “3,000 arrests per day” quota would have accepted this compromise in good faith, especially when the agreement was made in secret, preventing anyone from portraying it as a partisan win or loss. Tom Homan and his underlings wouldn’t lose face and the sanctity of courthouses would be respected as they almost always had been prior to Trump’s second term.

Almost immediately, it was made clear that it’s a waste of time to treat the administration like an adult.

Four days later, ICE agents executed a chaotic detainment inside the Hennepin County Government Center amid a swarm of lawyers and observers as people moved through the skyway of downtown Minneapolis at lunchtime.

18-year-old Herrera Berrios was the person detained by ICE officers, in an obvious violation of this agreement between the state Supreme Court justice and ICE officials. Berrios was chased through the courthouse before being tackled and cuffed on the lawn. After this happened, the government argued Berrios was subject to removal under Title 8 immigration law. That didn’t impress the presiding judge in Berrios’s case, who not only ordered his release, but criticized the government for its lack of a judicial warrant, as well as its attempt to use a law that applies to people “arriving” in the US to punish someone who had already been here for three years.

Berrios was in court to make an appearance after being charged with first-degree drug possession. These are still just allegations. Berrios otherwise has no criminal record. That means the pursuit and detainment here was performed just because the government wanted to, not because it needed to. And none of that backs up the claims made by the now-former front mouth for the DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.

Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, called Frank an activist judge appointed by former President Bill Clinton who had “released a criminal with drug charges back onto American communities.”

Drug charges? Yes. Criminal? Well, Berrios never received his day in court, so it’s a stretch to call someone still presumed innocent a “criminal” when all they’re facing are the government’s unproven allegations. And if you’re just as opportunistically stupid as McLaughlin, you could pretend this refers to Berrios’ undocumented status. But that would be like claiming an “activist judge” released a “criminal with drug charges” when the person being released was behind on their property taxes. Being undocumented is a civil violation, not a criminal violation, even if both refer to things that are against the law.

But this isn’t about what Berrios did or didn’t do. If he was a criminal, then evasion and eventual arrest are just part of that process. But ICE specifically promised a state justice sitting at the top level of the state’s court system that it wouldn’t do this sort of thing. And then it went out and did it anyway, less than a week after making that promise. The government is supposed to hold itself to a higher standard. Under Trump, it refuses to hold itself to any standard at all, which is making it exceedingly clear the usual “checks and balances” stuff just isn’t going to get the job done.

Filed Under: courthouse arrests, dhs, ice, mass deportation, minnesota, natalie hudson, sam olson, tom homan, trump administration