Judge rips Sessions on vic’s deport

An incensed federal judge in Washington on Thursday reversed the deportation of a domestic violence survivor and her daughter and threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt after finding out the Trump administration had put them on a flight to El Salvador even though their appeal was ongoing.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan laid into a Justice Department lawyer after he learned during a hearing in Washington, D.C., that the mother and daughter had been deported hours earlier — despite assurances from the government that they wouldn’t be, the American Civil Liberties Union said.

“This is pretty outrageous,” the judge said, according to the ACLU. “That someone seeking justice in U.S. court is spirited away while her attorneys argue for her in court.”

Sullivan ordered the plane be turned around and threatened to hold the government in contempt, starting with Sessions himself. The whereabouts of the woman, who’s only known as Carmen in court papers, was not immediately known.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment and referred inquires to the Department of Homeland Security.

“We are complying with the court’s order, and upon arrival in El Salvador, the plaintiffs will not disembark and will be promptly returned to the United States,” a DHS official said, declining to comment on why the deportation occurred in the first place.

The official said the plane was en route back to the U.S. shortly after 5 p.m.

The Washington Post first reported the unwarranted deportation of Carmen and her daughter.

The ACLU and government attorneys had agreed ahead of the hearing to delay their removal until midnight Thursday so they could petition the matter in court.

ACLU attorney Jennifer Chang Newell, who was present for the Thursday hearing, said she’s “sickened” by the administration’s “rush to deport as many immigrants as possible.”