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Tag: Trump deportation

  • Judge extends block on Trump administration’s efforts to deport migrant Abrego

    Judge extends block on Trump administration’s efforts to deport migrant Abrego

    WASHINGTON: Kilmar Abrego, the migrant whose wrongful deportation to his native El Salvador made him a symbol of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, must remain in the United States through at least October, a judge said during a court hearing on Wednesday.

    The hearing before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland signaled that Abrego’s legal battle is far from over, with his attorneys vowing to pursue multiple avenues to block the Trump administration’s latest plan to deport him to Uganda.

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    During the hearing, Xinis extended an earlier order from Monday that temporarily prohibited Abrego’s removal from the continental United States while she considers a petition he filed seeking to block his deportation.

    Xinis also said Abrego, currently being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Virginia, should remain within 200 miles of her courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland.

    The judge said she intends to rule within 30 days of the Oct. 6 hearing.

    The Trump administration’s push to deport Abrego, 30, to an African country where he has no ties is the latest twist in a saga that began in March, when U.S. authorities accused him of being a gang member and sent him to an El Salvadoran prison despite an order from a U.S. immigration judge prohibiting his deportation to that country .

    Abrego was brought back in June to face criminal charges of transporting migrants living in the United States illegally.

    He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have accused the administration of vindictive prosecution. He also has denied the administration’s claims that he is a gang member.

    Abrego, a sheet metal worker who entered the United States illegally, had been living in Maryland with his wife, their child and two of her children – all of whom are American citizens – when he was arrested and sent to El Salvador.

    Abrego’s lawyer said during Wednesday’s hearing that he will seek asylum in the United States through a separate proceeding before an immigration judge.

    His lawyers have said that the administration’s handling of the case is indicative of the Republican president’s push to expand executive power in immigration matters at the expense of due process mandated by the U.S. Constitution.

  • Judge blocks Trump deportations of Hondurans, Nepalese, Nicaraguans

    Judge blocks Trump deportations of Hondurans, Nepalese, Nicaraguans

    A federal judge in California has temporarily blocked deportations of Hondurans, Nepalese and Nicaraguans whose legal protections have been revoked by the Trump administration.

    “The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunity of liberty, and the American dream. That is all Plaintiffs seek,” District Judge Trina Thompson said in a 37-page order on Thursday.

    “Instead, they are told to atone for their race, leave because of their names, and purify their blood,” the San Francisco-based judge said. “The Court disagrees.”

    The Trump administration revoked Temporary Protected Status (TPS) last month from more than 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans who came to the United States after Hurricane Mitch devastated the Central American nations in 1998.

    The United States grants TPS to foreign citizens who cannot safely return home because of war, natural disasters or other “extraordinary” conditions.

    Around 7,000 Nepalese currently have TPS protection following a 2015 earthquake in the Asian nation.

    In addition to Hondurans, Nepalese and Nicaraguans, the Trump administration has also revoked TPS for hundreds of thousands of Afghans, Cameroonians, Haitians and Venezuelans.

    Those moves are also facing court challenges.

    In stripping TPS, the Department of Homeland Security has said it was doing so because conditions have improved in those countries to the point where their nationals can return home safely.

    “Temporary Protected Status was designed to be just that — temporary,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

    Thompson put the TPS terminations of Hondurans, Nepalese and Nicaraguans on hold until she holds a hearing on November 18 on the merits of a lawsuit challenging the move.

    In her order, the judge said the termination of TPS was “based on a preordained determination to end the TPS program, rather than an objective review of the country conditions.”

    She also said it may be motivated by “racial animus” and referenced a 2024 campaign statement by President Donald Trump who said migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

    “Color is neither a poison nor a crime,” Thompson said.

    Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history and curb immigration, mainly from Latin American nations.