A federal judge in West Virginia has given the Trump administration an ultimatum: Stop illegally detaining immigrants or face contempt rulings and “monetary sanctions against responsible officials.”
“Today, the Government continues to wrongfully detain those petitioners without due process,” [Goodwin’s] opinion reads. “Even now the Government incredulously asserts that the federal district courts do not have jurisdiction, that petitioners cannot raise due process violations, and that the Government has authority to mandatorily and indefinitely detain noncitizens in the local jail. The Government is wrong. Judges in this district have said that over and over and over again. I have said it myself.”
Our goal is compliance, not enforcement. The only people we throw the book at early are repeat offenders we’ve already suspended from pulling permits for repeat violations or anyone who tries to meet us with a lawyer.
We learned long ago that you can’t give a micrometer in this town to rich people who try to intimidate you with a lawyer. Other cities fold under that pressure, but with everyone in the city being in the top 0.1% there’s no way we can let lawyers intimidate us.
We go to court a few times a year, and our lawyers are way meaner than we are and haven’t lost a case since I’ve been with the city.