The Trump administration maintenance that More than 200 deported people Last weekend to a prison in El Salvador there were criminals with links with a dangerous Venezuelan gang.
But the legal documents presented in the Federal Court as part of the government attempt to clarify the legal basis for these deportations seem to ask more questions than they answer, and indicate that some, if not many, of the deportees were not the threats that threats and the application of customs (ICE) affirm that they are.
In some cases, these people were deported simply for being in the same car or home as other suspects. In others, a Trump administration official admits that there is little specific evidence that links some deported to any crime, and then, incredibly, argues that the lack of evidence must be taken as a crime proof.
“The lack of criminal records does not indicate that they represent a limited threat,” Robert L. Cerna, a director of the Field Office for ICE, wrote in Functions for ICE, in A affidavit Filed at the Federal District Court in Washington, DC, Monday night. Cerna continues to write that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they represent. It shows that they are terrorists with respect to those who lack a full profile.”
That is a ridiculously weak argument. Cerna argues that the Trump administration has the power to deport any immigrant suspected of having links with the train gang of Aragua, even if the evidence is thin and never tested in any court.
Imagine sitting in a jury and telling him that the Prosecutor’s Office tells him that there would be no evidence that any crime was committed, but that he must simply take the floor of the prosecutors that the suspect seems a bad guy. Any reasonable jury would vote to acquit, if the judge did not first laughed the prosecutors outside the Court.
Or simply turn the argument. Cerna would make evidence of crime as proof that someone was No A criminal? Of course not.
It is not surprising that the Trump administration was in such a hurry for due process For these deportations.
To be fair, the affidavit also contains sufficient details of the crimes committed by the members of the Trena de Aragua gang to conclude that at least some of those deported during the weekend probably obtained what they deserved. That does not excuse the hurried and illegal process: if it is something, it should only be stressed The importance of due process As a way to solve real threats of all others.
On the other hand, the Awn Declaration of Cerna paints the image of a Trump administration and an ice management that decided to deport as many people as possible, regardless of how the faint connection with Aragua’s train or any crime.
Near the end, Cerna points out that some of the suspects arrested and ice deported were simply trapped in the immigration dragnet because they were close to other ICE goals.
“According to a review of the ICE databases, numerous people deleted were arrested together as part of the federal gang operations, including two people who were in a vehicle during a federal investigations office with the fall of weapons with acquaintances (Aragua train) members; four people who were arrested during the execution of an operation of the city of the National Security City directed arrest (Arage Train, Arage, Arage Beger, Arage Bege, Arage) of Aren de Aragus de Aren) to all of Arrena de Arena de Aren de Aren de Aren.
Could these people have participated in some kind of illegal activity with known gang members when they were arrested? Sure. But that is exactly the point of the immigration courts and the criminal justice system: solve those difficult questions before Someone is locked up, deported or both.
The logic in exhibition in the Affidavit of Cerna is fundamentally in disagreement with due process or any sense of limited executive powers when it comes to prosecuting crimes. It is carried out against the campaign promises of President Donald Trump on the restoration of the law and order. In summary, it is the type of things that only the most committed bootlicker could even try to endure.
