Email from Joshua Bardavid, Esq.
Hi Greg: The Report and Recommendation came down today. It is attached. In short, the judge rejected the government’s argument that the Hazahzas are a flight risk or that removal is foreseeable.
Judge Stickney also stated that the government has failed to “specify what if anything else [the Hazahzas] can or should do at this point to facilitate the issuance of travel documents” above what the Hazahzas
have already done. He stated that he was “troubled and deeply concerned by” the claims of the government.
Nevertheless, Judge Stickney agreed with the government that Congress has stripped him of jurisdiction to review these decisions of the government, at least until 6-months of detention. Therefore, he concluded that the case should be held in abeyance until May 2.
I am pleased that Judge Stickney has recognized that the government’s positions are “unsupported” and troubling It is shocking that the Hazahzas must continue to wait in in a prison with violent offenders
for another four weeks before the Court could take action, but this is the result when Congress strips our courts — the neutral arbiter of fact and law in our system — of habeas authority to review decisions of
immigration officials. . . .
-Josh
Texas Civil Rights Review 