Predictably awful decision in Muñoz today. SCOTUS kills off all claims--that had been brought for years--by spouses separated through the visa denial process, saying the citizen spouses have no right to any explanation as to why their partners have been denied admission. 1/6 For background, check out my thread on this case before argument here . Reporters (and others outside immigration world), please don’t ignore these huge immigration cases coming at the end of the SCOTUS term amidst all of its other major decisions!! 2/6

https://x.com/ahilan_toolong/status/1782541817164288019

Must read!! Superb brief filed by @karahartlzer in CA9 anti-discrimination challenge to the criminal illegal reentry statute. Bottom line: there's no question it was enacted based on anti-Mexican racial animus. Sorry for long 🧵but there's A LOT here. 1/ bit.ly/3yexodc Recall that 8 USC 1326 is the most prosecuted federal crime in the United States, FAR exceeding all others. bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pd…. My colleague @ingrideagly has written extensively on it, e.g. bit.ly/3RxVg2q. 2/

I’ve been trying to stay away from Twitter to focus on my SCOTUS briefing in Fazaga scotusblog.com/case-files/cas…, but the last few days have made that impossible. I'll say more about that case later. But for now a few thoughts on recent events… 1/ 1. The Biden Admin’s failure to bring those who supported the US Govt in Afghanistan to this country is NOT bc it lacks legal authority. The parole statute (8 USC 1182(d)(5)(A)) clearly gives POTUS power to “parole” literally anyone into US. @IRAP @marikoinNY @adambcox 2/

There’s a lot missing from this nytimes.com/2021/05/22/us/… story on the decision to redesignate Haiti for TPS. Here’s some more context: @esullivannyt @TPS_Alliance @ReichlinMelnick @newman_chris @GuerlineMJozef @ErikaAndiola @eeerox @ACLU @ACLU_SoCal @davidcolker 1/ It says Trump tried to kill TPS as part of a “hard-line” effort to curb immigration. That line gets an A+ for white-washing! @nytimes plz state the facts about the former admin's motivations. They matter! Esp bc the Biden admin continues to keep some Trump policies in place. 2/

Two impt points about today's TRO decision enjoining the moratorium. 1. It does NOT apply to the enforcement priorities; enjoins only "the 100-day pause on removals." DHS still must apply the new memo to detention, in court, etc. Keep pressing for compliance! #FreeThemAll 1/ 2. The decision is plainly wrong. It holds DHS _must_ deport people ordered removed bc 1231a1A says "shall." But that is squarely contrary to J. Scalia's SCOTUS opinion in AADC, which reviews the history of deferred action and then holds ... @aclu @ACLUTx @ACLU_SoCal 2/

Some thoughts on new #ICE priorities and moratorium memo. 1. The memo creates an interim system starting by 2/1/21 and running abt 100 days while DHS does full review. So folks will have time to critique this from both sides. This is just the start of building a new system. 1/ 2. It has a refreshingly straightforward rationale: can’t deport everyone, have acute shortage of border resources, and there's a pandemic! So DHS must narrow its focus and guide agency personnel accordingly. Hard to imagine a non-frivolous challenge to that in court. 2/

VICTORY at last!! CA9 responds to COVID outbreak at Adelanto by AFFIRMING the original preliminary injnctn. ICE must release enough jailed immigrants to ensure social distancing at Adelanto. A week too late but we'll take it. @ACLU @ACLU_SoCal #FreeThemAll cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memo… On reflection I feel compelled to add two other bits: 1. The Court figured out that the Govt began mass testing on 9/14, but didn’t mention the outbreak on 9/15 at argument to CA9. That surely didn’t help their cause. @ACLU #FreeThemAll

@paulkrugman @WangCecillia I had hoped to ignore 9/11 this year, but this is too much. I was a junior atty @ACLU in NY on 9/11. I will never forget that day. I _also_ will never forget the nearly 1k people, mostly Muslim immigrants, indefinitely jailed in the Ashcroft raids. 1/ Fed officials repeatedly barred me from meeting them until we threatened to sue. Eventually I saw arnd 100 of these husbands, fathers, hard-working immigrants, treated like "terrorists" bc of their faith. The worst was Metro Detn Center, where BOP shackled them hand and foot. 2/

It's been awhile, but 400k people w TPS & their families, including several-100k American children, many of whom are still in school, still anxiously await a decision in Ramos v Nielsen. Refresher from @manaro_77 and I. aclu.org/news/human-rig… @ACLU @TPS_Alliance @ACLU_SoCal 1/ @TPS_Alliance isn't just waiting. They are building power. For the last 2 months they have gathered every Monday (with masks) to broadcast to thousands of TPS holders from the steps of the Ninth Circuit. I spoke to them last week. facebook.com/TPSAlliance/vi… @NDLON @sg_ndlon @ACLU 2/

I have much love and respect for you both @ImmCivilRights @ReichlinMelnick, and I understand the calls for imm rts litigators to raise discrimination claims more given the President’s many racist statements. But I respectfully think the request misguided. 1/ I know of 2 injunctions still blocking Trump-era policies on EP grounds, both TPS – Ramos for all countries and Saget for Haiti. They rest on a MOUNTAIN of evidence, incl. the “shithole countries” statement literally about TPS holders, but lots more. aclusocal.org/sites/default/… 2/

Thoughts on today's atrocity from #SCOTUS in Thuraissigam. Never let folx tell you the 5 conservatives care most about precedent, originalism or law’s predictability. Today they cared only for the anti-immigrant result they desperately wanted. @LeahLitman @rgoodlaw @adambcox 1/ The main issue: does the Suspension Clause require judicial review in deportation cases, was decided by SCOTUS twice b4. In 2001 St Cyr said “Because of [the Suspension] Clause, some "judicial intervention in deportation cases" is unquestionably "required by the Constitution." 2/

⁦I still find euphemisms about the Floyd murder jarring. @nytimes⁩ in election article says “But Trump’s belligerent response to protests after the killing of George Floyd, a black man, while in the custody of white police officers in Minneapolis...” nytimes.com/2020/06/03/us/… And I’m like “wait, someone killed him while in police custody? Who was it? And how did they do that with the police right there?”

So honored to represent #BLMLA and their leader @DocMellyMel & others standing up for racial justice, and against repressive curfews, in LA County, LA City, and City of San Bernardino. So proud of my @ACLU_SoCal colleagues incl. @PeterBibring @Adrienna_W @andreskwon @mg718 @ACLU Just filed complaint now. Curfew violates 1st, 5th, 9th (really), and 14th Amdts. Virtually all protests in SoCal have been peaceful. 30k people protested over last 5 days. But Govt trying to repress all 10 million! of us bc a few people NOT from #BLMLA looted in a few places.

Today (May 18) Sri Lankan Tamils commemorate the massacre of tens of thousands of our people by the Sri Lankan army in 2009. #Mullivaikkal #May18Rememberance #May18TamilGenocide @MarioArul @nimmideviarchy @Sujith_Xavier @ficader @dlocokid @tdmanoranjan @jdakwar @sarahlmehta 1/ If this is unfamiliar to you, please consider taking a few mins to learn about it. Human rights group @PEARLaction did this superb history for the 10th anniversary last year: pearlaction.org/inthefaceofgen… #Mullivaikkal #May18Rememberance #May18TamilGenocide 2/

Powerful order from the CD Cal in our case to force ICE to implement social distancing at Adelanto - the largest detention center in western US. Hernandez Roman v. Wolf. Several great provisions, including... #COVID19 #coronavirus #freethemall @ACLU_SoCal @ACLU 1/ "[Govt] shall reduce Adelanto’s detainee population by at least 100 detainees by April 27, 2020; by at least another 150 detainees by April 30, 2020; and, then, shall hit the target reduced population level by May 4, 2020." #COVID19 #coronavirus #freethemall @ACLU_SoCal @ACLU

Efforts to get ICE to release “medically vulnerable” detainees remind me of Gov Cuomo’s advice not long ago telling people to take less crowded subway cars. They will look shockingly inadequate really soon. #COVID19 #freethemall @KamalaHarris @PramilaJayapal @ACLUSoCal @ACLU 1/ To state the obvious: lots of healthy people die from #coronavirus. That’s why we ALL do social distancing. So ICE needs POPULATION TARGETS to leave enough space for social distancing inside its jails. #COVID19 #freethemall @KamalaHarris @PramilaJayapal @ACLUSoCal @ACLU 2/

Just finished #SCOTUS decision in #Preap. Most impt: it says _nothing_ re whether incarceration of these immigrants w/o bond hearings is constitutional. So we live to fight another day, just as in Jennings v. Rodriguez. We're already planning! @ACLU @ACLU_SoCal #not1more A few more thoughts in the weeds: 1. As @WangCecillia (who brilliantly argued the case) @matt_cam & others have noted, the opinion departs dramatically from the plain meaning of the word "when," which it reads to mean "any time after" rather than, well, "when." slip. op at 12.

Good news amidst the mayhem: govt won't try to defend TPS terminations for Honduras and Nepal against our lawsuit. 15k Nepalis who wouldve lost status in June & 85k Hondurans who wouldve lost in January 2020 are now protected under Ramos injunction. #TPSJustice @ACLU @ACLU_SoCal But this is only interim relief. Could be gone by next spring if we lose Ramos at Ninth Circuit in fall (oral argument likely in summer). Congress must solve the problem by granting permanent residence. TPS families - incl. several 100k US citizen children - deserve justice.

Glorious win for Yassir Fazaga and SoCal Muslim community members, & for human rights lawyers who have fought the creeping authoritarianism of “state secrets” doctrine for years. CA9 rejected Govt’s attempt to shut the courthouse doors. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opin… @ACLU @ACLU_SoCal The case is complicated. Been going 8 years. Opinion is 100 pages. Our statement is here: aclusocal.org/en/press-relea…

If you want more detail, a few guideposts and highlights:

1. The facts are told beautifully in this This American Life Episode from 2012: thisamericanlife.org/471/the-convert

9 years ago, on a morning much like this one, I woke up to prepare to argue Rodriguez in the Ninth Circuit. Two trips to the Ninth and two more to the Supreme Court later, and we r back, trying to preserve what we won. Wish us luck. @ACLU @ACLUSoCal I remember so many brave imprisoned immigrants I have met over the years. I remember their families. And so many brilliant and tireless lawyers and activists. I have learned so much from you. I carry your wisdom with me. @ACLU @ACLUSoCal

Must read piece from detained immigrant released at Rodriguez bond hearing, which SCOTUS will consider shortly: cnn.it/2ePSMwC "I was born in Mexico. My roots are there. But roots can be transplanted. I have lived more than half my life here..." #not1more