The transcript of the MN hearing where an AUSA said “This job sucks” is remarkable for more reasons than that. It’s a searing portrait of a crisis perpetrated by depraved & oblivious high-level officials. Read it all. ...
1/7
documentcloud.org/documents/2687…
Judge Jerry Blackwell’s own comments deserve attention: Unlawful detention “falls on the heads of those who have done nothing wrong to justify it. ... The overwhelming majority of the 100s seen by this Court have been found to be lawfully present ... in the country.”
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“[Y]ou cannot ... detain first & sort out lawful authority later. ... Continued detention is not lawful just because ... an operation has expanded beyond the Government's capacity to execute it lawfully.” ...
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... “In many instances, I have had to not just issue an order, but another order, another order, another order, about 7 or 8 different" iterations of a release order. ...
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When detainees are finally released, “[w]e learn that, having transported him to El Paso or New Mexico, you don’t bring him back. ... [He’s] put on on the street with just the clothes on their back. ... We can’t have them released when it’s minus 14 outside.” ...
5/7
Says one detainee’s lawyer: “We shouldn’t need a specific court order to ask the DOJ not to put someone’s life in danger. ... [I’ve had to pick up clients] who were left on the side of the road with no coat, no phone, no wallet, no hat ... and it’s zero degrees outside.”
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And when @politico dutifully seeks comment on what this transcript shows, both @TheJusticeDept & @DHSgov spit back their inevitable, knee-jerk, catch-all lie: It's all the fault of “activist,” “rogue judges.”
7/7-end
politico.com/news/2026/02/0…
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