A few thoughts on our fellow human beings living under a bridge in Del Rio, TX. Whom US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas says will all be deported. And on the horrific video of US Border Patrol abusing these fellow human beings, which I will not share here. /1 When I was a first-year law student, one of my first efforts at lawyering was as part of a team fighting the US government (George HW Bush admin) policy of interdicting Haitian refugees — our fellow human beings — on the high seas and turning them away from our shores in FL. /2

The case that drove me out of public defendering: client, a Black Latino man, was pulled out of a ticket line at Penn Station by DEA agents. For no good reason. Taken to their office and his bag searched. I filed a motion to suppress. /1

https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1279100504358912001

At the suppression hearing 3 DEA agents told 3 different stories. All patently inplausible. One had been found not credible in past similar case by another judge.

Of course the court, who I believe had never granted a suppression motion in all her life, denied our motion. /2

We've lost a valiant battle in Nielsen v. Preap today. Two terms in a row now, #SCOTUS has ruled in favor of the most extreme interpretation of the mandatory immigration detention statute - which results in detention without any individualized hearing on flight risk or danger. So much for abiding by the plain words Congress used.

The vote is 5-4, with Justice Alito writing the majority opinion. Justice Breyer dissents with RBG, Sotomayor, and Kagan.

Needless to say, SGB gets it right.