| By AP News Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons A federal judge accused the administration of recklessly violating the law in its efforts to deport millions of people living in the country illegally. Citing the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, the judge said that the White House had also “extended its violence on its own citizens.” Read more. |
| Why this matters: U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes said the administration had violated her December ruling that found it was illegally denying many detained immigrants a chance for release. She ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to provide them with notice that they may be eligible for bond and then give them access to a phone to call an attorney within an hour. Under past administrations, people with no criminal record could generally request a bond hearing before an immigration judge while their cases wound through immigration court unless they were stopped at the border. President Donald Trump’s White House reversed that practice. The Homeland Security department said in a statement that the Supreme Court had “repeatedly overruled” lower courts on the issue of mandatory detention. “ICE has the law and the facts on its side, and it adheres to all court decisions until it ultimately gets them shot down by the highest court in the land,” the statement said. |
