For Trump, familiar judge gets case of a ‘deported’ Mexican
SAN DIEGO, April 20, (AP): A case involving a man who was deported to Mexico despite having permission to be in the US under a program that shields young immigrants has landed in the courtroom of a judge whose impartiality was questioned by Donald Trump during the presidential campaign because of his Mexican heritage.
US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego was assigned the case of Juan Manuel Montes, 23, whose attorneys say could be the first known person deported by the Trump administration who had qualified for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Montes sued Tuesday for access to records on his deportation.
The lawsuit came less than a month after Curiel approved a $25 million settlement in a case alleging the now-defunct Trump University misled customers. Trump repeatedly criticized the Indiana-born judge during the campaign, insinuating that his Mexican heritage exposed a bias in the case because of Trump’s tough line on illegal immigration.
The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that Montes was entitled to be in the US until early next year under DACA, reversing its position a day earlier that his status had expired in August 2015 and wasn’t renewed.
The agency said Montes acknowledged under oath that he had entered the country illegally on Feb 19, resulting in his loss of status because it was an admission that he had left without the required permission.
The case may help define Trump’s approach to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was introduced in 2012 by president Barack Obama. Trump has kept it in place and made sympathetic remarks about its beneficiaries, angering some immigration hardliners.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Wednesday that he didn’t want to “rush to judgment” about Montes and referred questions to Homeland Security. He said the administration’s enforcement priorities are people who committed crimes in the United
States and pose a threat.
“I would respectfully suggest that, in this case, the facts are not completely out, so I would rather not jump to conclusions about what happened,” he said.
US Rep Steve King, an Iowa Republican, applauded Montes’ removal in a tweet that linked to a story in USA Today, which first reported the case. Above a photo of a mug, he wrote, “First non valedictorian DREAMer deported. Border Patrol, this one’s for you.”
In related news, another highranking judge on Wednesday asked Republican President Donald Trump’s administration to avoid immigration arrests at state courthouses.
New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner noted in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly that federal immigration officials recently arrested two people in New Jersey courthouses. The arrests, Rabner said, could cause witnesses to stay silent or domestic abuse victims to avoid court.
“A true system of justice must have the public’s confidence,” he wrote.
Rabner wants Kelly to add courthouses to a list of sensitive locations, including houses of worship and schools, recognized by immigration officials.
Meanwhile, the father of a Muslim-American soldier who died in combat in Iraq filed an amicus brief on Wednesday supporting a federal judge’s decision to block President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban.
Attorneys for Gold Star father Khizr Khan filed his brief in San Francisco where the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals is considering an appeal to the ruling by US District Judge Derrick Watson.
Khan’s son, Humayun Khan, was a Muslim US Army captain who was killed in 2004 by a suicide bomber in Iraq. Humayun was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
A Mexican mother of four US-born children living in southwest Ohio has been returned to Mexico.