Tag Archives: Massachusetts

Reuters:Top US immigration officials defend arrest of Massachusetts high school student

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The head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE] defended on Monday his agency’s decision to arrest a Massachusetts high school student on his way to volleyball practice, saying “he’s in this country illegally and we’re not going to walk away from anybody.”

He’s a child who has been here since the age of five. He knows no other country.

And people wonder why ICE is so reviled?

Lyons and Patricia Hyde, the acting field director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in Boston, said Gomes was not the target of the investigation that led to his arrest and that authorities instead were seeking his father, who remains at large.

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A federal judge issued an emergency order on Sunday preventing authorities from transferring Gomes out of Massachusetts for at least 72 hours in response to a lawsuit arguing he was unlawfully detained.

The lawsuit said that Gomes entered the United States on a student visa. While his student visa status has lapsed, the lawsuit said he is eligible for and intends to apply for asylum.

Top US immigration officials defend arrest of Massachusetts high school student
The head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement defended on Monday his agency’s decision to arrest a Massachusetts high school student on his way to volleyball practice, saying “he’s in this country illegally and we’re not going to walk away from anybody.”

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/top-us-immigration-officials-defend-arrest-massachusetts-high-school-student-2025-06-02

Mass Live: Gov. Healey demands answers after ICE arrests Mass. high school student

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Gov. Maura Healey is demanding answers after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested a Massachusetts high school student on Saturday.

“I’m disturbed and outraged by reports that a Milford High School student was arrested by ICE on his way to volleyball practice yesterday,” Healey said in a statement Sunday morning. “Yet again, local officials and law enforcement have been left in the dark with no heads up and no answers to their questions.”

The governor is pressuring ICE to provide information about why the student was arrested, where he is now and “how his due process is being protected,” according to her statement.

The 18-year-old student was detained by ICE agents somewhere off Milford High School’s campus, Milford Public Schools Superintendent Kevin McIntyre said in a Sunday statement. Additionally, a number of Milford parents have also been arrested by federal immigration officers in recent weeks, he said.

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Rentas told WCVB she is in contact with her boyfriend, who told her that he is being held in chains with dozens of other men. He is the only teen among them.

Marcello’s friends and family told the news station he has lived in Milford since coming to the U.S. at age six.

“To just separate him from everybody he knows — like his whole life, just because he wasn’t born here — it’s not right,” his cousin, Ana Julia Araujo, told WCVB.

Gov. Healey demands answers after ICE arrests Mass. high school student
“I’m disturbed and outraged by reports that a Milford High School student was arrested by ICE on his way to volleyball practice yesterday,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement Sunday morning.

https://www.masslive.com/news/2025/06/gov-healey-demands-answers-after-ice-arrests-mass-high-school-student.html

News Nation: Judge: Harvard researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos was unlawfully detained by ICE

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A federal judge in Vermont on Wednesday released a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher from immigration custody as she deals with a criminal charge of smuggling frog embryos into the United States.

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Petrova, 30, is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service in Louisiana. She is expected to be brought to Massachusetts as early as Friday in preparation for a bail hearing next week on the smuggling charge, lawyers said in court.

Another loss for King Donald & his bully boys!

Judge: Harvard researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos was unlawfully detained by ICE

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/ap-us-news/ap-judge-harvard-researcher-charged-with-smuggling-frog-embryos-was-unlawfully-detained-by-ice

Reason: ‘Banal Horror’: Asylum Case Deals Trump Yet Another Loss on Due Process

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President Trump is entitled to try to execute his immigration policy. He is not entitled, however, to violate the Constitution.

The Trump administration this week formally agreed to comply with a ruling that ordered it to facilitate the return of a migrant who was unlawfully deported—in what was another loss for the government as it attempts to subvert basic due process rights in immigration proceedings.

The migrant—named in court documents as O.C.G., who has no criminal history—arrived in the U.S. in May 2024 and sought asylum. An officer agreed he had a credible fear of persecution and torture if returned to Guatemala; a judge assented as well and granted him withholding of removal to that country.

During his proceedings, when he asked if he might be sent to Mexico, a judge replied: “We cannot send you back to Mexico, sir, because you’re a native of Guatemala.” Deportations to a nonnative country legally require, at a minimum, additional steps in the process.

That was particularly relevant to O.C.G.’s case, because, as he testified in court, he claims to have been held for ransom and raped while passing through Mexico, securing release only after a family member paid the sum. Yet two days after his withholding of removal was granted, the government unlawfully deported him—without a chance to contest it—to Mexico, after which he returned to Guatemala, where his attorneys say he lives in hiding and in fear of serious harm.

‘Banal horror’: Asylum case deals Trump yet another loss on due process
The Trump administration this week formally agreed to comply with a ruling that ordered it to facilitate the return of a migrant who was unlawfully

https://reason.com/2025/05/29/banal-horror-asylum-case-deals-trump-yet-another-loss-on-due-process

USA Today: Trump temporarily backs down on Harvard student ban as judge sides with college

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A Boston federal judge said at a hearing May 29 that she planned to issue a preliminary injunction that blocks the Department of Homeland Security from revoking Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign exchange students.

The comments from U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs came as the Trump administration attempted to walk back its May 22 directive that immediately revoked Harvard’s participation in a federal exchange student program.

Trump temporarily backs down on Harvard student ban as judge sides with college
A federal judge plans to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from halting Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/29/harvard-protection-foreign-student-enrollment-trump-ban/83917871007

Deseret News: Federal judge orders Trump administration to restore some research on women’s health and transgender mental health issues

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The articles talked about the mental and physical health of women and transgender individuals

A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration must restore medical research articles from a government database, which were removed for promoting “gender ideology,” per The Christian Post.

The authors of the articles, Harvard medical researchers Gordon Schiff and Celeste Royce, sued the Trump administration over the removal of their research from the Patient Safety Network, according to The Harvard Crimson.

One of the articles in question was removed for commenting on the diagnosis of endometriosis, an often-debilitating medical condition, for women, transgender and non-gender-conforming individuals.

Another paper was removed for commenting on the importance of recognizing groups at risk for suicide, stating that young people, veterans, men, Indigenous, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer groups are at particular risk.

Massachusetts District Court Judge Leo Sorokin argued that the articles’ removal violated the First Amendment.

“This is a flagrant violation of the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights as private speakers on a limited public forum,” he stated according to The Christian Post. “Because irreparable harm necessarily flows from such a violation, and the balance of harms and the public interest favor the plaintiffs, the motion for a preliminary injunction is allowed in part.”

Federal judge orders Trump administration to restore some research on women’s health and transgender mental health issues
The articles in question talked about the mental and physical health of women and transgender individuals.

https://www.deseret.com/politics/2025/05/27/judge-orders-trump-administration-restore-research-on-women-transgender-health

MSNBC: Judge blocks Trump administration from dismantling the Education Department

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There’s no evidence the government’s actions are making the department more efficient, a federal judge wrote.

A federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the Education Department, calling out the government’s “efficiency” efforts in the process as anything but. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun wrote that there’s “no evidence” that a massive reduction in force “has actually made the Department more efficient.”

“Rather,” he wrote Thursday, “the record is replete with evidence of the opposite.”

The Biden-appointed judge made that observation when he granted a preliminary injunction, ordering the government to, among other things, halt the reduction in force and reinstate federal employees who were already terminated.

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Noting that Congress created the department in 1979, the judge explained that the president can’t shut it down without congressional approval. And yet, he found the government is trying to effectively dismantle it without such approval.

Judge blocks Trump administration from dismantling the Education Department
There’s no evidence the government’s actions are making the department more efficient, a federal judge wrote.

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/trump-education-department-judge-blocks-efficiency-rcna208572

MSNBC: Trump’s pick for IRS chief gives oddly evasive answers on presidential targeting

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Billy Long wouldn’t give a direct response when asked if the president can order the Internal Revenue Service to strip someone’s tax-exempt status.

Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Internal Revenue Service refused to state that the president ordering an audit of an individual or organization, or that an organization’s tax-exempt status be removed, would be illegal.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was apoplectic over Billy Long’s evasive responses to a line of questioning related to Trump’s open desire to strip Harvard University of its tax-exempt status for blatantly political purposes.

At one point during his testimony, Long said: “The IRS will not, should not be politicized on my watch, or any watch.” But his inability to give a clear response to Warren’s straightforward inquiry about his interpretation of the law certainly raises doubts.

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In a matter of years, Republicans have gone from hyping up dubious allegations that America’s tax system had been weaponized against conservatives to placating an illiberal wannabe “king” who openly wants to use that system against liberals. And Long is the living embodiment of that hypocritical turn.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/billy-long-irs-elizabeth-warren-nonprofits-tax-exempt-trump-rcna208278

MSNBC: Judge says Trump administration violated court order with South Sudan deportation flight

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It’s the latest instance of a judge calling out the administration’s law-breaking.

A federal judge on Wednesday said the Trump administration violated a court order when it put a group of migrants on a plane to war-torn South Sudan without giving them a proper chance to challenge their removal. It’s the latest example of the administration breaking the law in carrying out Donald Trump’s agenda.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts last month had ordered the government to apply those safeguards before sending people to countries they aren’t from, or so-called third countries. Murphy said at a Wednesday hearing that the administration had “unquestionably” violated his order with Tuesday’s flight. The Biden appointee raised the possibility of contempt but didn’t make a final decision about that at the hearing.

Murphy had issued a separate order on Tuesday for the government to “maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful.”

… a federal appeals court judge wrote Monday, “As is becoming far too common, we are confronted again with the efforts of the Executive Branch to set aside the rule of law in pursuit of its goals.” The judge continued, “It is the duty of courts to stand as a bulwark against the political tides that seek to override constitutional protections and fundamental principles of law, even in the name of noble ends like public safety.”

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/south-sudan-trump-violated-court-order-rcna208308

Politico: Trump admin deportation flight to South Sudan violated court order, judge rules

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It’s the latest rebuke in an escalating clash over Trump’s deportation agenda. Several judges have now accused the administration of defying the courts.

The Trump administration “unquestionably” violated a court order when it put seven men on a deportation flight bound for South Sudan, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, suggesting that administration officials may have committed criminal contempt.

The rebuke from U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy is the latest episode in an intensifying clash between the administration and the judiciary over President Donald Trump’s campaign to carry out rapid deportations while evading court oversight.

Three federal judges have now castigated the administration for circumventing, or outright defying, court orders that have sought to block or reverse aspects of Trump’s deportation agenda. And several others — including a majority of the Supreme Court — have scolded the administration for attempting to violate immigrants’ due process rights.

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The hasty deportations fell far short of the due process requirements in Murphy’s April ruling, the judge said Wednesday.

Trump admin deportation flight to South Sudan violated court order, judge rules
It’s the latest rebuke in an escalating clash over Trump’s deportation agenda. Several judges have now accused the administration of defying the courts.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/21/trump-deportations-south-sudan-00362919