There are something like 10 million, 15 million, 20 million (pick a number) illegal immigrants within the United States. Around a million and a half are subject to final removal (deportation) orders. Apparently, each and every one of them are entitled to de novo review of their cases up to the U.S. Supreme Court, if not beyond.
As I always remind readers, I am the one non-lawyer on this site. This strikes me as ridiculous: from Reuters,
A U.S. judge on Friday [today] barred the Trump administration from implementing a new policy allowing it to rapidly deport hundreds if not thousands of migrants to countries other than their own without giving them a chance to show they fear being persecuted, tortured or killed there.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston last month had issued an order that temporarily blocked the administration from fast-tracking deportations, hobbling its ability to remove migrants subject to final orders who in some cases have legal protections preventing them from being sent back to their countries of origin.
Once again, it’s a lone district judge, of course, from Boston. Perhaps the Constitution is a suicide pact, after all, or I just don’t understand the meaning of the word “final.”
A glimmer of hope? The Los Angeles Times, of all outlets, put out this headline this morning,
More immigrants opt to self-deport rather than risk being marched out like criminals
Anecdotal evidence to be sure. The LA Times,
Three months in [to Trump’s Presidency], it’s difficult to estimate how many people are making the grueling decision to leave the lives and families built here under more lenient enforcement policies to return to home countries that many have not seen for decades.
I’m guessing that the actual number of self-deportees is close to zero and that the Times is just trying to drum up opposition to Trump policies. But if I may be so rude as to make a suggestion.
