Last night I proofread for a federal court reporter the transcript of a hearing (the second one in this case) about ICE’s efforts to deport a student after his visas were revoked because of events at a pro/anti Gaza war demonstration.
I won’t go into identifying details, but the student’s actions occurred a year and a half ago, he’s worked out a plea deal in state court on the charges brought against him, and has a ticket already bought to fly to his home country as soon as he enters his plea.
So, no problem, right? He finishes what he has to do and “self-deports”, no cost to the government, no effort by them, right?
WRONG.
ICE is insisting he has to be taken into custody by them, various paperwork and proceedings must happen, and THEN he’ll be deported – after weeks if not months in their custody, at the taxpayers’ expense.
The judge hearing this case is clearly frustrated at the stupidity of it all but federal law surrounding all this is a hot mess, downright Kafkaesque. It seems clear from what the student’s and the government’s attorneys have been arguing that ICE is (a) insisting that their bureaucratic power is more important than any practical solution, and (b) that they want to punish the student for being pro-Palestinian (he’s from a different country).
Oh, and I forgot to mention that despite his being in this country for a year and a half after the incident, and has gone back home and returned twice in that interval, no ICE action was being taken against him until a right-wing group doxxed him online and yelled about why hasn’t he been kicked out – and the very next day ICE shows up at his door.
P.S. This was not a sealed hearing; any member of the public would have been entitled to attend it.