Judge orders feds to pay to bring back deported illegal immigrants

Taxpayers suddenly find themselves on the hook for bringing back illegal immigrants who judges say were wrongly deported.

A federal judge in California last week ordered Homeland Security to pay to un-deport two migrant families who were convinced to accept deportation from the U.S. through “lies, deception and coercion.”

And the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday asked another judge in Washington to force DHS to pay to un-deport as many as 137 migrants the Trump administration flew out under the president’s Alien Enemies Act powers.

“If they’re going to come back, that should be at government expense,” Lee Gelernt, an ACLU lawyer, told Judge James Boasberg during a hearing to decide how the government will have to make up for what the judge has said were illegal deportations of Venezuelans sent to El Salvador last year.

The issue is likely to gain steam as more judges order the Trump administration to reverse some of its deportations.

Until now, most of the un-deportations have been one-offs.

The most prominent of those is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the federal government brought back from El Salvador under pressure from a judge. The government describes his return as an extradition, since he now faces a criminal case here.

The ACLU wants to see the numbers increase. It has asked Judge Boasberg, an Obama appointee and frequent legal opponent of the Trump administration, to create a process that could allow more than a hundred migrants to return.

And in California, it was also the ACLU that won the order last week from Judge Dana Sabraw compelling taxpayers to foot the bill for several families’ return.

Judge Sabraw is overseeing a case still left over from President Trump’s first-term family separations, and he said the government used deceptive tactics and violated his orders in deporting families covered by a legal settlement in the case.

He said DHS policy doesn’t encourage paying for un-deportations, but it doesn’t prohibit it “under appropriate circumstances.”

And he said the only way to fully erase the government’s mistake is for Uncle Sam to pay to get the families back.

“Defendants’ decision to remove these families rendered the benefits of the Settlement Agreement illusory for these families, and the manner in which each of these removals was affected, in addition to being unlawful, involved lies, deception and coercion,” he wrote.

He added: “For these reasons, and to enforce the terms of the Settlement Agreement as to these families … defendants shall bear the cost of returning these family units to the United States.”

Judge Boasberg, meanwhile, didn’t answer the ACLU’s demand for the government to pay the tab. He said he’ll issue a ruling by next week on what steps he’ll direct the government to take to rectify its mistakes in his case.

Mr. Gelernt, the lead lawyer in both the Boasberg and Sabraw cases, said it’s not clear how many of the Venezuelan migrants will even be able to take advantage of a paid ticket to return to the U.S. to challenge their deportations.

But he said they should have the option.

“There are people who very much want to come back,” he said.

The Trump administration signaled its displeasure at the idea of paying to bring back people it already ousted.

“We disagree with this judge’s ruling invalidating the President’s lawful authority to remove illegal aliens,” said Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “The facts and truth remain the same: these individuals were here illegally. DHS will continue to enforce the law of the land and address this matter with the court.”

Rosemary Jenks, policy director at the Immigration Accountability Project, said the government shouldn’t be returning people to the U.S., much less footing the bill.

“These are people who have no right to be in the United States. Taxpayers have already paid for them to be removed from the United States, and we certainly shouldn’t have to pay for them to be brought back so that they can be removed again,” she said.