Federal Judge Halts All Deportations with New Order

A federal judge in Maryland has implemented a standing order this week which automatically grants injunctions that halt government actions in response to petitions for writs of habeas corpus from immigrants facing deportation or changes to their legal statuses.

The brief order, put into effect by Chief U.S. District Judge for Maryland George L. Russell III, an appointee of Barack Obama, refers to the surge of emergency immigration cases under the previous Trump administration as the rationale behind the preemptive, yet temporary, restriction on deportations.

And, the court says, such proceedings have created an administrative headache – pressure the court intends to try and alleviate.

“The latest surge of habeas petitions regarding alien detainees claimed to be subject to improper and imminent removal from the United States, often filed after regular court hours and during weekends and holidays, has led to scheduling conflicts and resulted in rushed and frustrating hearings,” states the order. “[G]aining clear and detailed information regarding the whereabouts and status of the petitioners proves to be challenging.”

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The court offered a laundry list of additional reasons for the extraordinary administrative change:

[I]n order to preserve existing conditions and the potential jurisdiction of this Court over pending matters while the Court determines the scope of its authority to grant the requested relief; to ensure Petitioners are able to participate in the adjudication of their requests for habeas relief, including participation in court proceedings and access to legal counsel for such purposes; to ensure the Court is able to evaluate their respective claims for relief based on their in-court testimony that may be offered; and to ensure the Government has a fulsome opportunity to brief and present arguments in its defense…

Under the standing order, once a habeas petition is filed on behalf of an immigrant detainee, it is immediately docketed, noticed, and a copy is sent to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.

The writ of habeas corpus is a 900-year-old legal protection afforded to persons against authoritarian impulses of law enforcement and government executives, which allows an advocate to argue someone is being illegally confined, detained or imprisoned. It is generally considered the bedrock of the American and British legal systems.

The writ also attempts to force the government to answer questions in court and account for its actions by forcing an administrative process on, for example, the detention and deportation of immigrants.

Habeas writs have become increasingly relevant after the Trump administration, in violation of a court order, flew planes full of immigrant detainees to a notorious prison in El Salvador – citing the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798. Preemptively, attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warned such deportations would violate habeas corpus, along with other rights.

As litigation fanned out in the aftermath of those summary deportations – and as the government planned other such deportation flights – district courts increasingly moved to stop the government from any repeat behavior, largely agreeing with the ACLU’s analysis.

On April 7, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously agreed the government could not use the AEA without due process and prescribed the use of habeas corpus petitions to litigate detention under the obscure wartime law. Then, on April 19, the high court issued an exceedingly atypical Saturday ruling ordering the government “not to remove” a certain group of immigrants “until further order.”