"Turn the plane around"

The ACLU court case to protect asylum seekers fleeing domestic and drug violence had some drama in the courthouse today. From the Washington Post:

A federal judge in Washington halted a deportation in progress Thursday and threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt after learning that the Trump administration tried to remove a woman and her daughter while a court hearing appealing their deportations was underway.

“This is pretty outrageous,” U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said after being told about the removal. “That someone seeking justice in U.S. court is spirited away while her attorneys are arguing for justice for her?”

As reported earlier this week, and diaried here, the ACLU is suing Attorney General Jeff Sessions on behalf of 12 clients (3 of whom are children) from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras — for the policy of having border agents turn away asylum seekers escaping drug or gang violence, thus sending them back to certain jeopardy and even death.  The ACLU was able to get approval to delay the deportation of the clients they were representing until they were done in court. However, one of the attorneys on the case received an email during court today that indicated that their deportation process had begun with an 8:15 am flight from San Antonio.   

During a brief recess, she told her colleagues the pair had been taken from a family detention center in Dilley, Tex., and were headed to the airport in San Antonio for an 8:15 a.m. flight . . . Sullivan ordered the government to “turn the plane around.”

Here’s the story from the ACLU:

BREAKING: In challenge to Sessions' policy of denying asylum protection to immigrants fleeing domestic violence and gang brutality, the judge blocked the government from deporting our clients as he considers the case.However, disturbing news came to light during the hearing.

While in court, we found out that the government had deported a client and her young child just hours before, putting their lives at risk.This directly contradicts the government's commitment to the court that NO ONE would be removed until tomorrow at the earliest.

This disregard for commitments made to the court and the life or death circumstances that these immigrant women and children are facing is beyond unacceptable.

Thank you, ACLU! Keep fighting for our country. 

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Update:

The letter from the judge is below. If you have twitter can you click on it to read it. I tried to save it as a jpg but could not for some reason. Suffice it to say, this judge is not screwing around:

Judge Sullivan's order requiring our clients to be returned to the United States and indicating that Sessions, Nielsen, and others will be required to personally appear in court and face potential contempt sanctions if they do not comply pic.twitter.com/ftWV4h6Wql