Latest / NO FILTER / _Disappeared from the legal system__ Asylum cases dismissed after deportations to El Salvador(MP3_160K)

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_Disappeared from the legal system__ Asylum cases dismissed after deportations to El Salvador(MP3_160K) · NO FILTER

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Venezuelan migrants who were sent to the Sea Maxican maximum
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: security prison in El Salvador. NBC News reports there are
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: now at least fourteen instances of their individual cases being dismissed,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: raising questions about whether they'd ever be allowed to return
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to the United States.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Was swinging right now? The reporter on this or NBC
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: News corresponded, David Noriega. You know, David, we've all seen
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: news reports about Abrego Garcia that has filled the news
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: obviously for the past several months. Actually majority of Americans
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: believe he should be returned, but that's always sort of
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  Speaker 2: left behind the hundreds that were also sent down there
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  Speaker 2: under questionable circumstances. Where did those cases sit right now?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's absolutely right, Joe. So I found out that
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  Speaker 3: this was happening, that these asylum cases were being dismissed
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  Speaker 3: because I've been following closely the case of one of
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  Speaker 3: the Venezuelan men who was sent to the Cyclo with
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  Speaker 3: Mega Present El salvad Or. His name is Andre Hernandez Rometo.
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  Speaker 3: It's a fairly well known case. He's a gay man
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  Speaker 3: who worked as a makeup artist for a state TV
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  Speaker 3: station in Kadakas and Venezuela. He came to the United
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  Speaker 3: States because he said he told his lawyers that he
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  Speaker 3: was suffering persecution for his sexual orientation and for his
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  Speaker 3: opposition to the Maludo government in Venezuela. So he was
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  Speaker 3: detained at an ICE attention facility in San Diego and
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  Speaker 3: was pursuing his asylum claim. There was supposed to be
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  Speaker 3: a hearing in that case this week on Wednesday, but
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  Speaker 3: the judge at the very last minute dismissed the case,
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  Speaker 3: canceled the hearing, basically threw the case out. Now here's
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  Speaker 3: why this matters, right, What's at the core of this
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  Speaker 3: story is due process. As we've talked about before, and
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  Speaker 3: when we talk about due process in these cases, often
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  Speaker 3: what we're talking about are these pending cases in immigration
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  Speaker 3: court that many of these men, the majority of these
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: men had before they were deported under the Alien Enemies
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  Speaker 3: Act in ANANI. This is this case. For example, the
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  Speaker 3: way his lawyers found out he had been removed to
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  Speaker 3: El Salvador was because he simply didn't show up to
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  Speaker 3: immigration court one day, and so they investigated figured out
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  Speaker 3: that he was likely one of these people who was
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  Speaker 3: sent to the Mega prison. So the lawyers and lawyers
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  Speaker 3: around the country did this. When they figured out this
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  Speaker 3: had happened with their clients, they scrambled to keep these
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  Speaker 3: immigration court cases open basically as a way of preserving
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  Speaker 3: the vestiges of due process while you know, the bigger
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  Speaker 3: picture worked its way through the federal courts. The legality
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  Speaker 3: of these deportations was assessed by the federal court system,
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  Speaker 3: and for a while, the immigration courts, the immigration judges,
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  Speaker 3: went along with it. They continued these cases, they kept
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: them open. But that started changing in just the last
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  Speaker 3: couple of weeks as the government has been moving to
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  Speaker 3: dismiss these cases. More and more immigration judges because the
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  Speaker 3: asylum seekers in the cases are absent, are agreeing and
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  Speaker 3: dismissing the cases. So I should say that I reached
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  Speaker 3: out to the relevant government agencies, to DHS and DOJ,
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  Speaker 3: who you know, in various ways are involved in the
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  Speaker 3: immigration court proceedings for this story. Didn't hear back. I'm
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  Speaker 3: going to keep pressing them for answers on this. But
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  Speaker 3: I have been talking to the families and lawyers of
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  Speaker 3: some of these men. The families, on the one hand,
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  Speaker 3: are devastated and on this is family for example, told
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  Speaker 3: me that his asylum case, keeping it open was a
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  Speaker 3: beacon of hope for them that is now closed. And
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  Speaker 3: the lawyers in particular say that the fact that these
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  Speaker 3: cases are being dismissed means not these men are essentially
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  Speaker 3: being disappeared from the American legal system. In the words
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  Speaker 3: of one lawyer, their concern is that the government here
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  Speaker 3: is trying to pretend that they were never here in
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  Speaker 3: the United States legally seeking asylum in the first place.
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  Speaker 4: Back to you, guys, claire Y Haskell, Yeah, David, I
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  Speaker 4: am curious if there has been any effort to look
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  Speaker 4: at all of these cases and try to figure out
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  Speaker 4: what percentage of the folks actually have criminal records.
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  Speaker 5: We had a case in Missouri that splashed onto the
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  Speaker 5: New York Times this week. A woman named Carol who
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  Speaker 5: overstayed a tourist visa from Hong Kong. Been in this
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  Speaker 5: small community in the boothill of Missouri for twenty years,
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  Speaker 5: working as a waitress. Beloved in this community, bought a home,
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  Speaker 5: have children, and she's missing the break. She went to
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  Speaker 5: an appointment and of course they locked her up. And
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  Speaker 5: the people in this small town are outraged. They all
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  Speaker 5: voted for Trump. Eighty percent of the folks in this
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  Speaker 5: town of ten thousand in the Booty all voted for Trump.
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  Speaker 5: But they're going, wait a minute, we didn't sign up
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  Speaker 5: to deport moms. We signed up to deport criminals. Do
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  Speaker 5: we have any idea what percentage of the folks they
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  Speaker 5: have disappeared or removed from the country actually have criminal
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  Speaker 5: records or verified criminal activity.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: Part of the problem is that these flights happened with
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  Speaker 3: virtually no transparency whatsoever. The government actually has not, even
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  Speaker 3: in any court setting, acknowledged or recognized or given out
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  Speaker 3: the names of the people who were deported to this megaprison.
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  Speaker 3: So everything that we know we know because we are
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: individually investigating these cases. However, I can tell you that
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  Speaker 3: there are ongoing efforts by lawyers, by the press, including
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: NBC News, to essentially build a comprehensive view of who
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  Speaker 3: the men were who were deported under the Alien Enemies Act,
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  Speaker 3: who had these ongoing pending legal immigration court cases, And
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  Speaker 3: what everyone is finding is that the majority did not
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  Speaker 3: have criminal records of any kind, either in the United
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  Speaker 3: States or in the various countries that they lived in
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  Speaker 3: prior to coming to the United States. I personally have
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  Speaker 3: investigated several cases that fall under that description and have
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  Speaker 3: spoken to their families and their lawyers. In a lot
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  Speaker 3: of these cases. The pattern that we're seeing is that
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  Speaker 3: these are men who were often flagged by immigration authorities,
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  Speaker 3: either when they crossed the border or flew in Vienna
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  Speaker 3: to an airport, or when they came into contact with
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  Speaker 3: law enforcement in one way or another because of their tattoos. Right,
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  Speaker 3: there is this sort of view in federal law enforcement,
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  Speaker 3: the tattoos are an indication of belonging to Trendara Weather
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  Speaker 3: Venezuelan gang. Specifically, that was the case with Andrea Nandez,
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  Speaker 3: the case that I was just telling you about two
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  Speaker 3: tattoos on his wrists of crowns. Now, this is a
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  Speaker 3: very complicated issue. I've spoken to LA enforcement experts, other
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  Speaker 3: experts who say that rindaa Wa does not use tattoos
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  Speaker 3: as markers of belonging to the gang. Sometimes they use tattoos,
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  Speaker 3: sometimes they don't. Tattoos alone cannot function as evidence that
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  Speaker 3: someone belongs to this particular criminal organization, and nevertheless, that
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  Speaker 3: is what appears to have caused a lot of these
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  Speaker 3: men to get swept up in this operation. But I
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  Speaker 3: want to stress part of the problem here is that
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  Speaker 3: there is no transparency around these deportations whatsoever, in any context,
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: either to the press or to the federal judiciary.
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  Speaker 1: We thank you for continuing to dig into this. NBC
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  Speaker 1: News correspondent David Noriega, we look forward to more of
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  Speaker 1: your reporting. Thank you for coming on this morning. And
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  Speaker 1: Claire mccaskell, thank you.