Attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security say the agency didn’t violate a judge’s order detailing when people may be deported to countries other than their own because it was the Defense Department — not DHS officials — doing the deporting.
Justice Department attorney Mary Larakers made the argument in a court document filed Wednesday, suggesting that U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy’s order wasn’t violated because the Defense Department isn’t a defendant in the lawsuit.
Murphy’s order, first issued March 28, blocked the Trump administration from deporting people who have exhausted legal appeals to countries other than their country of origin unless they are told of their destination and given a chance to object if they fear they will face torture or death there.
Some countries do not accept deportations from the United States, which has led the Trump administration to strike agreements with other countries like Panama to house them. Some Venezuelans subject to Trump’s Alien Enemies Act have been sent to El Salvador and housed in its notorious main prison.
In the court filing, Larakers said four people were deported to El Salvador on March 31 — three days after Murphy issued the restraining order — but said that was done by the Defense Department, and DHS officials were not on the flight and did not direct the removals.
Two people were removed to Mexico, Larakers wrote, but one of them was sent three days before the restraining order was issued and the other one was sent the morning of March 28, several hours before the order came out.
The man deported on March 28 was first asked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers “if he was afraid of being returned to Mexico. At this time, he stated he was not afraid of returning to Mexico,” Larakers wrote.
Laraker also provided a sworn statement from DHS official Tracy Huettl, who said each of the deportees had been convicted of crimes in the U.S. and were ordered removed by an immigration judge. The men who were deported after the court order were all in ICE custody before they were transferred to a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, where they were held until Defense Department officials had them flown to El Salvador, Huettl wrote.
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