Update on Detained Dreamers/Immigration Ban

[tanaqui]

Following on from last week's update:

Daniela Vargas, detained after speaking out about her deportation fears at a meeting last week, was released on Friday under an order of supervision.

Meanwhile, Daniel Ramirez Medina, the DACA recipient detained during a raid to arrest his father and accused of gang affiliation, remains in custody. The federal judge handling the case delayed issuing a ruling at a hearing last Wednesday because he said the Justice Department improperly made a new argument in a brief filed Tuesday, leaving Ramirez's attorneys little chance to respond. A ruling is expected early next week.

Meanwhile, at least five states are challenging the Minority President's new Travel Ban signed on Monday: Maryland is joining a challenge by Washington that's also backed by Oregon and Minnesota, while Hawaii has filed a separate challenge. Meanwhile, the new travel ban has faced its first successful challenge when a federal judge in Wisconsin blocked its application against a Syrian family.

Comments

Medina Update

[executrix]

Alejandro Lazo reported in the Wall Street Journal on March 14* that the federal magistrate judge James Donohue in Seattle ruled on the 14th that Medina (and, by extension, other Dreamers) can challenge his detention in federal court. The government wanted to dismiss the case on the grounds that only the immigration court, not federal civil courts in general, could hear the challenge. Donohue said that claims of unconstitutional conduct before removing someone from the US can go to federal court. However, he would not grant a writ of habeas corpus to release Medina from detention, finding that habeas has limited application in immigration cases. The case goes next to a federal district judge. The Department of Justice has until March 28 to respond to Donohue's ruling.

The article says there are about 750,000 Dreamers.

Theodore J. Boutros, one of Medina's attorneys, said that Donohue's ruling is "a signal to ICE agents and immigration authorities that the courts are wathcing them--that the courts will step in and protect DACA recipients."


*not linked because of pay wall--the title of the article is "Arrested "Dreamer" Can Challenge His Detention in Federal Court, Judge Says" in case you can get it via Google.

Re: Daniel Ramirez Medina Update

[tanaqui]

Thanks for the update on Daniel Ramirez.

There's a non-paywalled version of the story at the Huffington Post

While it sucks that the guy is still in detention, I get the impression the judge is doing his best to air this all out in public as much as possible, and make it unequivocally stick for all other DACA recipients, to ensure they can't be swept up like this.

In other good news, a federal judge in Hawaii has put a nationwide halt on the second travel ban, and a federal judge in Maryland has also ruled against the core measure in the executive order. Here's the story at the New York Times.