Judge puts blame on Trump, Congress for immigration crisis
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Trump administration’s failed attempt to detain migrant families together indefinitely ran into a formidable obstacle in a judge whose upbringing was shaped as the daughter of immigrants and who previously rejected requests to allow the government to lock up children with their parents.
Judge Dolly Gee, the first Chinese-American woman appointed to the U.S. District Court, has joked that her mother was her first pro bono client because she had to translate for her at medical appointments and help her apply for jobs as a seamstress when she was just a girl.
“She in many ways inspired my desire to go to law school,” Gee said in a video produced by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. “I saw firsthand the difficulties she encountered as a non-English speaker and also as a garment worker. And I saw many of the abuses that take place in the workplace, and I decided at a fairly early age that I wanted to do some type of work that would address some of the inequities I saw as a child.”
On Monday, Gee rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to detain immigrant families in longterm facilities, calling it a “cynical attempt” to undo a longstanding court settlement.
The U.S. Justice Department said it disagreed with the ruling and was reviewing it further.
Gee, 59, worked for years as a labor lawyer and arbitrator before applying to be a judge in what she saw as a chance to diversify the court.
President Bill Clinton nominated her in 1999, but the GOP-controlled Senate dragged its feet and Gee never received a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. President Barack Obama nominated her a decade later, and she was confirmed and took her seat in Los Angeles in 2010.
Although Gee has handled hundreds of cases, she is best known for a series of decisions on immigration in which she has often ruled against the government.
Overseeing a longstanding settlement between the government and immigration advocates over the detention of minors, Gee ruled in 2015 that immigrant children should not be held for long periods — generally no longer than 20 days — even with their parents. She said they should be released as quickly as possible, typically to a relative.
In sharply worded rulings in the case, Gee scolded the Obama administration for holding children in “widespread and deplorable conditions,” and she dismissed a request to reconsider a decision at one point, noting the government had “reheated and repackaged” its arguments. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals largely upheld her ruling but said its agreement didn’t require the release of parents with their children.
Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked Gee to modify her order so families that entered the country illegally could be held together indefinitely. The move followed the president’s reversal of a policy that created an uproar when children were taken from their parents in emotional scenes caught on camera.
The government said in court papers that Gee’s previous ruling made family detention unlikely and provided an incentive for immigrants to bring children with the expectation they wouldn’t be locked up.