That headline is supposed to be big news back here in Minnesota. From Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) News,
Judge orders Nicaragua man’s return after deportation to the Central African Republic.
The story was picked up by Newsweek. Why should you, a Minnesota resident, care about this story? MPR reports,
Kenis Lopez Gonzalez arrived in Minnesota in 2022 and was living in Shakopee. He was arrested in mid-January, during the height of Operation Metro Surge, and moved from jail to jail across the U.S. A judge had barred him from being deported to Nicaragua, since he fears persecution from the government there.
So Mr. Lopez came to America without legal authorization to do so. Regardless, the Biden Administration chose not to deport him. The Trump Administration decided to enforce the law. So he was deported, and the government accommodated his expressed desire to not be returned to his native Nicaragua. So what’s the problem?
It turns out that not only did Lopez not want to return to Nicaragua, he didn’t want to go to the CAR, either. Even though there is a lawful order from an Immigration Court in effect.
Mr. Lopez does not like any of the options before him, so he thinks that means he gets to stay in America, notwithstanding his illegal status.
And a Minnesota-based federal judge agrees with Lopez. The judge, of course, is Jeffrey Bryan, a Biden appointee, and the illegal alien’s best friend on the federal bench. Reading the order in the case, Bryan, as always, credit’s the alien’s claims as 100 percent accurate and does not mention any response provided by the government.
Naturally, Bryan has ordered the immediate return of our Shakopee man to Minnesota, threatening U.S. Dept. of Justice lawyers with criminal contempt and indefinite imprisonment if the CAR, an independent nation, doesn’t immediately comply with the American judge’s commands. As far as I can piece together, (1) there exists an order from an Immigration Court, honoring Lopez’s request not to return to Nicaragua, but allowing his deportation to a third country and (2) Lopez is not an American citizen and has no legal status to be in America. I’m unclear on what basis Bryan is exerting any authority all on in this case.
I’ve been tracking all of the habeas corpus cases filed in the District of Minnesota since late March, totaling some 466 petitions. Bryan has handled 48 of those cases and ordered the release of 39 illegal aliens, while denying zero (0) petitions. No judge has a record this lopsided. Bryan has handled just over 10 percent of the habeas caseload but is responsible for 26 percent of the district’s release orders.
Of course, the Lopez case (File No. 26-cv-4507) is not captioned as a habeas case because, at the time it was filed two weeks ago, the government was not in custody of the Lopez corpus, the CAR is. Reportedly, Lopez has a habeas case pending in a different federal district.
Our parade of nations features a number of Nicaraguans, but so far, no citizens of the Central African Republic.
[Note: an earlier version of this article was posted at Power Line.