Federal Courts Undercut Trump’s Mass Deportation Campaign

Federal judges around the country have ordered the release of hundreds of immigrant detainees in recent weeks after a surge of habeas corpus petitions challenging the Trump administration’s push to detain people indefinitely, The New York Times reported. Lawyers said they had filed dozens and, in some organizations, hundreds of habeas petitions since November, and judges have in the vast majority of cases sided with detainees or ordered bond hearings.

Atlanta immigration lawyer Jessie Calmes said she had filed at least 40 petitions since November and that every one had been granted, and Boston lawyer David Spitzer said he had been contacted "constantly" by people asking for habeas help. The influx of cases has strained federal courts in states including Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

A person with knowledge of the process told The Times the Justice Department has pulled some criminal prosecutors to help handle habeas cases, and court records showed that one judge in the Western District of Texas had 134 pending habeas cases as of Jan. 29. Judge Arun Subramanian wrote that his district had been "flooded" with petitions, and Chief Judge Wendy Beetlestone noted orders granting relief were being filed "nearly every day." The wave of litigation stems from a change in policy that made virtually everyone in the country unlawfully subject to mandatory detention, removing discretion from immigration judges, The Times reported.

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