Dozens of judges have asked lawyers representing President Donald Trump’s administration to explain why the government should not be held in contempt for failing to comply with court orders involving detained immigrants.
A new review by The New York Times found that in at least 35 cases since August, federal district courts or magistrate judges issued so-called “show cause” orders requiring the government to explain why it should not be punished for violating the orders.
A show order is essentially the government’s last chance to explain itself before being scorned.
The Justice Department, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, attacked the judge in response to criticism of the government’s failure to comply with court orders. / Joe Riedel/Getty Images
The surge in orders is evidence that judges are angry with officials as they try to determine whether the violations were intentional or the unfortunate byproduct of a legal system overwhelmed by Trump’s mass deportation agenda, the Times reported.
“We are at a point where the courts are trying to figure out whether the Trump administration has systematically ignored court orders, or whether this is the result of overload, incompetence and disrespect,” Harvard law professor Noah Feldman told The Times.
The Times noted that some leaders in Pam Bondi’s Justice Department have said publicly and privately that the department is not overly concerned with enforcing court orders.
In a statement to The Daily Beast, a Justice Department spokesperson blamed the large number of cases on the Joe Biden administration and “rogue judges.”
“If rogue judges followed the law when hearing cases and respected the government’s obligation to properly prepare cases, there would not be an ‘overwhelming’ number of habeas corpus cases or concerns about habeas corpus. [Department of Homeland Security] Follow orders,” the statement said.
It added that the number of people detained by ICE is “a direct result of the strong border security policies this administration has adopted to keep the American people safe.”
However, after weeks of false testimony, shoddy legal arguments and a failure to comply with court orders, the judges are fed up, The Times reported.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes, a Biden appointee, blasted the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy, which has been struck down in more than 1,600 cases and led to a flood of habeas corpus petitions from immigrants who say they are wrongfully detained.
President Trump’s deportations and mandatory detention policies have resulted in thousands of habeas corpus cases. / Charly Triballeau / Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
In a sweeping decision requiring the administration to comply with her previous orders, Sykes wrote that administration officials “have chosen to exploit these specific circumstances about which they now complain.”
Another judge wrote in a scathing ruling that “federal government agents — masked, anonymous, armed with military-style weapons, operating in unmarked vehicles, and operating without warrants of any kind — are detaining people who violate civil immigration regulations and imprisoning them without any due process.”
Judge Joseph R. Goodwin, a Clinton appointee, wrote that such an approach was “an assault on the constitutional order” that the Fourth Amendment was intended to prevent.
But last week, a judge took the unusual step of loaning a military lawyer to the Justice Department, which has seen an exodus of attorneys since Trump began his mass deportations in civil contempt for an immigrant released from ICE custody.
Protesters across the country have demonstrated against ICE’s tactics, including a march in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in January. /Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino ordered attorney Matthew Isihara to pay a fine of $500 per day until the identification documents are returned to Rigoberto Soto Jimenez. Rigoberto Soto Jimenez, a legal U.S. resident, was arrested during the Metro Surge in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Ishihara apologized to the judge and said the case was over.
On Thursday, Jimenez’s attorneys received an overnight FedEx package and a judge lifted her contempt order.
