Thread by @eeerox

Thanks for everyone who showed support for my bond hearing to free our disabled client at Otay Mesa. I want to give an update, but the detained docket was so wild that I’m going to take my inspiration from @ScottHech and drop a THREAD:

First up, the judge had to conflict out of a review of a negative reasonable fear finding. She had been an ICE trial attorney for over a decade, and had helped deport the man who had returned to the border to seek protection. MOST judges I know used to work for DHS or were AUSAs

...which means the judge often acts as a prosecutor, which was definitely the case today. Next up on the docket was a young man who had lived in the US for 7 years and has a US citizen baby. He has no criminal record, a university education and good employment history.

This poor guy was driving in San Diego and was arrested by Border Patrol. He had a pending court proceeding, which means he has permission to be here. The govt submitted the I-213, which describes the arrest and the grounds of deportability. Here’s where shit gets wild

FIRST, it’s important to understand that the I-213 almost always contains false or incorrect information. Border Patrol OFTEN lies, putting ridiculous stuff like a toddler claimed he came to the US to work, etc

In this case, they claim the guy had calls from a Mexican phone number known to be associated with smuggling activity. The client tells the judge that his phone is in his property, and that she can look for herself and see that he never received a call from a Mexican number

At this point, the judge starts screaming at the guy. She tells him she works for DOJ, not DHS, and that she doesn’t have access to his phone. All the lawyers side-eyed each other, because up to this point, she had been interrogating him while the DHS attorney sat silently

The I-213 contained numerous other facts that were plainly wrong. The client claimed he never made the statements attributed to him. Again, this is NORMAL. It’s rare to get an I-213 that doesn’t have mistakes or lies

In her decision, the judge acknowledged his equities, then started talking about how she has to take into consideration the smuggling accusations. She stated as fact that he received calls from the smuggler, even though the guy had evidence that it wasn’t true!

THEN, she cites his arrest location as evidence because ‘it’s a known smuggling location where migrant pick-ups occur.’ HOMEBOY WAS ARRESTED IN DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO. Like there is nothing legitimate he could otherwise be doing there?!?

When y’all say you want secure border, THIS is what it means. Racially-motivated checkpoints and dragnets with ZERO due process and countless cases of falsified evidence against people of color

Anyway, the guy ended up getting a $15,000 bond based on evidence that would never stand in criminal court. This is a guy with no criminal record, permission to be in the US and a baby! They didn’t even charge him for smuggling so WTF?!?

Next up was my case, a SEVERELY disabled elderly asylum seeker who had escaped torture by his govt in Central America. I wish I could give all the details -short version is he was probably going to be killed by medical neglect if we didn’t get him out

I submitted a mountain of evidence, including an independent medical report stating my client is at imminent risk of death, a report showing that the facility’s med care is so egregious it requires reporting to the state licensing authority....

...and I submitted evidence that a person died just a few years earlier from the SAME medical condition at the SAME facility due to the exact terrible medical treatment afforded to my client

My client was afraid to report his constant pain to medical staff because they shackled him during transport to the hospital and treated him so roughly that he was in MORE pain by the time he got back to the facility.

My client also didn’t want to be held in the medical wing because it’s like solitary confinement. He’s traumatized by the torture he endured and the stress of being in a small confined space made his health issues worse

Anyway. The govt atty was willing to agree to a $3500 bond; my client has close family in the US who could help pay. I advised my client to take it, given how the last hearing went! But he thought if he could tell the judge that he was dying, she might lower the bond.

The judge was already pissed that he didn’t take the deal, which she said was ‘generous.’ Keep in mind he is a detained, indigent, disabled refugee with pro bono counsel. How the hell is he supposed to pay that without help?

We started testimony. I asked the judge to allow me three minutes. I started asking questions about the torture he suffered in home county. The judge starts yelling 60 seconds in that this isn’t an asylum hearing and that we are there to determine flight risk and danger....

I calmly explained that the strength of his claim is relevant to his flight risk- the stronger his asylum case, the more incentive he has to show up to court. But I moved on. I started documenting the medical neglect on the record, but got screamed at again for being ‘off topic’

At issue was the fact that my client crossed the border between ports of entry. However, he had tried to present at the port of entry, was turned away, and was living on the streets of Tijuana

After he was homeless in Tijuana for about a week, other migrants helped him through a hole in the border fence and then threw his crutches over. He stayed put until border patrol came and he told them he wanted to apply for asylum

The government attorney tried to argue that he could have just presented himself at the Port of Entry the next day. I was all, IF I MAY, YOUR HONOR 🙋🏻‍♀️ and then explained that because of metering, presenting himself at the Port of Entry wasn’t an option

Even though the US government had turned this disabled asylum seeker away in violation of the law, and he was literally dying in detention, the judge said that ‘wasn’t an excuse’ for his disrespect of US immigration law 😧

To be clear, SEEKING ASYLUM IS PERFECTLY LEGAL, whether at a Port of Entry or not. If anyone was disrespecting our nation’s immigration laws in this scenario, it was our own government!!

At this point, the judge asked the DHS attorney whether the $3500 offer was still on the table. The trial attorney said that given his illegal entry, they were withdrawing the offer and OPPOSING ANY GRANT OF BOND! FOT THE DUDE DYING IN DETENTION!

I got lectured about how we should have taken the deal, how she wanted to set a higher bond, and how the govt’s offer was soooo generous. 🙄 Finally, she said that given the medical issue, she would issue the $3500 bond. You know, the medical issue she didn’t want on the record?

So....I guess we won? If you have made it to the end of this thread, thanks for letting me get this off my chest and PLEASE donate to our Vida Libre bond fund! We have freed 27 people in the past 6 months and we ain’t stopping. THANK YOU alotrolado.networkforgood.com