ICE Is Here

 

ICE is here

In trying to understand what, if anything, the judge in Wisconsin did or didn't do to obstruct justice, I tripped over what for her may well end up being what caused her to either make a bad mistake or engage in legally protected conduct. Apparently there is a long standing issue with arrests in their courthouse as a safety policy issue. Judge Dugan, was holding court when she was told that "ICE is here". 

Judges can be quite prickly when it disrupts the flow of court. She went outside to talk to the arrest team and was told that they were there to effectuate an arrest and, when informed that they did not have a judicial warrant but an administrative warrant, directed them to the Chief Judge (who told the agent that they were working on a system to address the issue of arrests in their courthouse).

While that was happening, the judge directed the person who the agents were seeking to go out a side door. He was chased and arrested. His due process kicked in. The complaint was made against the judge, she was arrested, and due process kicked in. She may be convicted or not but she will be protected by the rule of law, the way it should be.

"ICE is here", though, that made a connection to two different episodes in my life that I link metaphorically with that statement.

The first one was in Cuba:

"NACRA," she said, her eyes now telegraphing utter fear. The word had no meaning to me. It was in response to my questioning what was happening. One minute it was just another swanky bar in Havana's Hemingway Marina. Yachts from all over the world, here to take part in two of Cuba's tourist draws, fishing and sex. There's a flurry of activities, an ambiance full of music, drinking, dancing, your typical bacchanal. I am having a nice time talking with this young lady. We had been sitting blissfully in Chan Chan, their very fancy club. And suddenly, a deathly pall came over the whole place. But I couldn't tell why. While the activities continued seemingly uninterrupted, I felt the room temperature drop and the hair on the back of my neck stand up. "NACRA," she repeated. "The secret police. They've entered the room. They've entered the room." In their jungle they are adept at spotting things dangerous. It's how you survive.

The other in Honduras, where I had gone to interview witnesses: 

I knew I had screwed up. His eyes flashed pure evil, pure hatred. He looked at the other officers in his group making some sort of calculation. They had been stationed maybe 50, 75 feet away, stopping other cars. He pondered killing me. And I thought back to all of the times that my PTSD wariness had supposedly kept me safe and wondered how the fuck I was sitting here on a road - in a convertible Mustang - in Honduras - talking shit to a cop. "You should be ashamed of yourself", I had told him. "You're a police officer". I chided him for asking me for a bribe and disgracing his country. A bribe that probably wouldn't have cost me more than $20 was now going to cost me my life. And for a few seconds I tasted my last moments. And for another excruciatingly long time, also probably just a few seconds, he calculated killing me and finally let me go, probably because I had not wounded his pride in front of his fellow officers.

Lost, unfortunately, in this the most recent kerfuffle is the fact that the Trump administration is at war with all of our institutions, most recently the judiciary. As is their practice, they seize on instances where the nuances get lost in immediate theatrics. It's still a stretch to compare our system with Cuba's or Honduras' but vigilance, especially given the jackboot parallels we see daily, is definitely called for. Don't let your middle class entitlement fool you, Ice is Here.

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That Was Not A Deportation

That Was Not A Deportation

 I kept seeing that Obrego-Garcia had been "deported" but it sounded from everything that I had read more like he was kidnapped. There is a big distinction between the government going through legal process and just Shanghaiing and disappearing someone. The file in PACER bears out that this was no deportation. (Obrego-Garcia's case is drawing most of the heat for the obvious: the "authority" the Trump administration is using doesn't apply to someone from El Salvador as opposed to Venezuela. But the Due Process issue is just as relevant to the Venezuelans accused of being tren de aragua gang members.)

The government's lawlessness can be traced to January 20. Up to that point, the legal process had been proceeding as intended: Obrego-Garcia, who had left El Salvador when he was 16 years old and had been living in this country ever since 2011 got picked up some eight years later at a Home Depot and accused of being a member of MS-13; the government moves for his removal; he appears for his first meeting, asks for bond, submits 70 pages of evidence in support;  the government objects to him being released, maintaining that he was a gang member on the basis of him having a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie as well as some unsubstantiated information tying him to another part of the country that he's never been; he files for asylum and the withholding of removal based on the protections afforded under the Convention Against Torture; the hearing, which spans over two days, results in the withholding of removal. The government does not appeal.

Obrego-Garcia eventually married, had a child, had been fully compliant with his ICE check in requirements, had never been arrested or charged with any crime in the United States (or in El Salvador). The question of his supposed gang membership off the table. 

Until March 12th, 2025. 

After completing his shift, Obrego-Garcia got picked up by agents and told that his "status had changed". No hearing. No request to bring him back to the immigration court, etc. He is whisked away by masked men, no mention of where he is going, eventually finding himself in a prison notorious for its cruelty. A solution worthy of Pontius Pilate but that is no "deportation"; that is a rendition.

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