Judge blocks administration from deporting noncitizens to 3rd countries without due process
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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from deporting noncitizens to countries other than their place of origin without due process.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued an injunction that bars the Trump administration from deporting any noncitizen to a country not explicitly mentioned in their order or removal without first allowing them to raise concerns about their safety.
“Defendants argue that the United States may send a deportable alien to a country not of their origin, not where an immigration judge has ordered, where they may be immediately tortured and killed, without providing that person any opportunity to tell the deporting authorities that they face grave danger or death because of such a deportation,” Judge Murphy wrote.
“All nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Assistant Solicitor General of the United States, Congress, common sense, basic decency, and this Court all disagree.”
The ruling throws a roadblock in the Trump administration’s policy of removing noncitizens to countries like El Salvador, Honduras, or Panama, even if the noncitizens lack an order of removal to those countries.
The Trump administration last month invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador with little-to-no due process.
Judge Murphy noted that the Trump administration officials “have applied and will continue to apply the alleged policy of removing aliens to third countries without notice and an opportunity to be heard on fear-based claims — in other words, without due process.”
He said his order prevents the irreparable harm of noncitizens being sent to countries where they might face persecution, torture, or death without having the chance to challenge their removal in court.
“The irreparable harm factor likewise weighs in Plaintiffs’ favor. Here, the threatened harm is clear and simple: persecution, torture, and death. It is hard to imagine harm more irreparable,” he wrote.
Judge Murphy’s order requires that the Trump administration provide noncitizens written notice before they are removed to a third country, as well as a “meaningful opportunity” to raise concerns about their safety, including providing at least 15 days to reopen their immigration proceedings.
He also certified a class — meaning the order applies not only to the plaintiffs in the case, but also any noncitizen with a final order of removal.
Separately, Judge Murphy is considering whether the Trump administration violated his temporary order when it removed at least three men to El Salvador without allowing them to raise concerns about their safety. He is still considering that issue.
(LOS ANGELES) — Erik and Lyle Menendez’s long-awaited resentencing hearing will move forward on Thursday despite a new filing from Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who wants to keep the brothers behind bars.
In a filing late Wednesday, prosecutors urged the court to obtain a copy of a recently completed risk assessment conducted on the brothers by the California Board of Parole Hearings at the request of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The filing by the district attorney’s office urged the judge to delay the sentencing if the court couldn’t get a copy of the report in time for the hearing.
Outside the courthouse Thursday morning, Hochman said he wants all of the facts to come out, but added that his team is proceeding with the hearing.
The Menendez brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, called the last-minute attempt to delay the resentencing hearing a “Hail Mary” by Hochman.
The brothers — who are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez — are fighting to be released after 35 years behind bars.
At the resentencing hearing — which begins Thursday and is likely to last through late Friday — 10 family members are ready to take the stand, ABC News has learned. A prison expert and former inmate may also testify.
This comes one week after Lyle and Erik Menendez had a major win in court when the judge ruled in their favor at a hearing regarding Hochman’s motion to withdraw the resentencing petition submitted by the previous DA, George Gascón, who supported resentencing and the brothers’ release.
In the DA’s three-hour argument Friday, he argued the brothers — who were listening to the hearing via video — haven’t taken responsibility for their actions and he called their claims of self-defense part of a litany of “lies.” Hochman also dismissed the brothers’ claim that they were sexually abused by their father.
This comes one week after Lyle and Erik Menendez had a major win in court when the judge ruled in their favor at a hearing regarding Hochman’s motion to withdraw the resentencing petition submitted by the previous DA, George Gascón, who supported resentencing and the brothers’ release.
In the DA’s three-hour argument Friday, he argued the brothers — who were listening to the hearing via video — haven’t taken responsibility for their actions and he called their claims of self-defense part of a litany of “lies.” Hochman also dismissed the brothers’ claim that they were sexually abused by their father.
Geragos called the decision “probably the biggest day since they’ve been in custody.”
“They’ve waited a long time to get some justice,” he said.
Hochman said in a statement after the ruling, “We concluded that the case was not ripe for resentencing based on the Menendez brothers’ continuing failure to exhibit full insight and accept complete responsibility for the entire gamut of their criminal actions and cover-up, including the fabrications of their self-defense defense and their lies concerning their father being a violent rapist, their mother being a poisoner, and their trying to obtain a handgun for self-defense the day before the murder.”
“Until the Menendez brothers finally come clean with all their lies of self-defense and suborning and attempting to suborn perjury, they are not rehabilitated and pose an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety,” he said.
This potential path to freedom gained momentum in October, when Hochman’s predecessor, Gascón, announced he was in support of resentencing.
Gascón recommended their sentences of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and said they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence.
Gascón’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón — who lost his reelection bid to Hochman in November — praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.
Over 20 Menendez relatives are in support of the brothers’ release. Several of those relatives spoke with ABC News last week, including cousin Diane VanderMolen, who said Erik Menendez asked her to relay a message.
“They are truly, deeply sorry for what they did. And they are profoundly remorseful,” VanderMolen said. “They are filled with remorse over what they did. And through that, they have become pretty remarkable people.”
Besides resentencing, the brothers have two other possible paths to freedom.
One is their request for clemency to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom announced in February that he was ordering the parole board to conduct a 90-day “comprehensive risk assessment” investigation into whether Lyle and Erik Menendez pose “an unreasonable risk to the public” if they’re granted clemency and released.
After the risk assessment, which Hochman said in the filing is now complete, Newsom said the brothers will appear at independent parole board hearings in June.
The other path is the brothers’ habeas corpus petition, which they filed in 2023 for a review of two new pieces of evidence not presented at trial: a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father, and allegations from a former boy band member who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by Jose Menendez.
In February, Hochman announced he was asking the court to deny the habeas corpus petition, arguing the brothers’ new evidence wasn’t credible or admissible.
(MILWAUKEE) — Attorneys for Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan are seeking to dismiss her federal indictment on charges alleging she helped an undocumented immigrant evade arrest, claiming in a new court filing that she is immune from federal prosecution for official acts.
In the filing, Dugan’s attorneys cite the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in President Donald Trump’s immunity case as support.
A federal grand jury indicted Dugan on Tuesday on charges she concealed a person from arrest and obstructed a proceeding before a department or agency of the United States.
Dugan appeared briefly in court Thursday morning. Her lawyers entered a plea of not guilty to the two federal charges. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Dries, who presided over the arraignment, set a trial date for July 22. The trial will be overseen by U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman, and was estimated to take about a week.
The government has not yet filed a response to Dugan’s motion to dismiss the indictment.
“This is no ordinary criminal case, and Dugan is no ordinary criminal defendant,” her attorneys, Rick Resch and Steven Biskupic, wrote in the motion filed Wednesday. “The government’s prosecution of Judge Dugan is virtually unprecedented and entirely unconstitutional.”
Dugan was arrested on April 25 at the Milwaukee County Circuit Courthouse after being charged in a criminal complaint. Prosecutors allege she was attempting to help a defendant appearing in her courtroom evade federal agents who were in a public hallway outside her courtroom waiting to arrest him for immigration violations.
“The problems with this prosecution are legion, but most immediately, the government cannot prosecute Judge Dugan because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts. Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset,” her attorneys wrote in the motion. “The prosecution against her is barred. The Court should dismiss the indictment.”
In three instances in the motion, Dugan’s attorneys cite the Supreme Court decision in the Trump immunity case as support for their position that Dugan is immune from prosecution for official acts.
Federal authorities allege that Dugan went into a hallway in the Milwaukee courthouse and directed the agents away from her courtroom, then instructed the defendant, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, to leave the courtroom through a non-public entrance, allegedly in an effort to allow him to evade arrest. In a post on social media following her arrest, FBI Director Kash Patel claimed Dugan “intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse.”
But Dugan’s lawyers contend in their motion that the doorway Flores-Ruiz used to exit the courtroom leads to the same public hallway a few feet away from the doors to Dugan’s courtroom. There, agents involved in the operation spotted him, followed him to an elevator and then arrested him after a short foot chase outside.
“Even if (contrary to what the trial evidence would show) Judge Dugan took the actions the complaint alleges, these plainly were judicial acts for which she has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution,” her lawyers wrote. “Judges are empowered to maintain control over their courtrooms specifically and the courthouse generally.”
Her lawyers also argued that whatever Dugan’s motivations might have been, they are “irrelevant” to the issue of immunity.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan in the wake of her arrest, stating in an order that it found it was “in the public interest that she be temporarily relieved of her official duties.”
Dugan’s legal team draws from four different firms and is led by Biskupic, a former Wisconsin federal prosecutor appointed by former President George W. Bush.
Another of her lawyers, Dean Strang, will be familiar to viewers of the Netflix docuseries, “Making a Murderer.” Strang was one of the defense attorneys for Steven Avery in a controversial homicide case, who became an unlikely star.
The legal team also includes Paul Clement. A former U.S. solicitor general during the George W. Bush presidency, Clement has argued before the Supreme Court more than 100 times. His Washington, D.C.-based law firm is listed in a court filing on Wednesday as being part of Dugan’s legal team, but Clement has not yet entered an appearance in the case.
(LOS ANGELES) — Eight relatives of the Menendez brothers sat down with ABC News in an exclusive interview the night before the case returns to court to show they are unanimous in supporting Erik and Lyle Menendez’s release from prison.
This marks the first time the brothers’ aunt, Jose Menendez’s sister, Terry Baralt, has spoken out in decades.
“They are like the boys that I didn’t have,” she told ABC News.
“It’s time — 35 years is a long time,” she said. “It’s a whole branch of my family erased. The ones that are gone and the ones that are still paying for it, which were kids.”
Baralt, who is battling colon cancer, said she’s concerned she might not live to see her nephews be released from prison.
“I have tried to go see them as much as I can, but it’s hard because I live in New Jersey and I’m 85. I don’t have that much time,” she said.
“When kids are little and they come to you, you fix the problem. I can’t help them. … There is nothing I can do — just go visit them and cry when I leave,” she said, overcome with emotion. “This is why I don’t give interviews. It’s hard.”
Lyle and Erik Menendez — who are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1989 murders of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez — are fighting to be released after 35 years behind bars.
A hearing will be held on Friday’s on Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s motion to withdraw the brothers’ resentencing petition. Depending on what the judge decides, another resentencing hearing may be set for April 17 and 18.
Last month, Hochman asked the court to withdraw the motion from the previous district attorney, which was in support of resentencing. Hochman argued the brothers hadn’t taken responsibility for their actions and called their claims of self-defense part of a litany of “lies.”
Because the “brothers persist in telling these lies for the last over 30 years about their self-defense defense and persist in insisting that they did not suborn any perjury or attempt to suborn perjury, then they do not meet the standards for resentencing,” Hochman said.
Hochman told ABC News last month that he would reconsider resentencing only if the brothers admitted to “the full range of their criminal activity and all the lies that they have told about it.”
In October, Hochman’s predecessor, George Gascón, announced he supported resentencing the brothers.
Gascón recommended their sentences of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and said they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence.
Gascón’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.
Over 20 Menendez relatives are pushing for the brothers’ release, arguing they endured horrific abuse, have admitted guilt and apologized, and have used their decades behind bars to help others.
Ahead of Thursday night’s interview, Erik Menendez asked his cousin, Diane VanderMolen, to pass along a message to ABC News.
“They are truly, deeply sorry for what they did. And they are profoundly remorseful,” she said. “They are filled with remorse over what they did. And through that, they have become pretty remarkable people.”
Resentencing is one of three possible paths to freedom for the brothers.
Another path is the brothers’ request for clemency, which has been submitted to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom announced in February that he was ordering the parole board to conduct a 90-day “comprehensive risk assessment” investigation into whether Lyle and Erik Menendez pose “an unreasonable risk to the public” if they’re granted clemency and released.
After the risk assessment, the brothers will appear at independent parole board hearings on June 13, Newsom said.
The third path is the brothers’ habeas corpus petition, which they filed in 2023 for a review of two new pieces of evidence not presented at trial: a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father, and allegations from a former boy band member who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by Jose Menendez.
In February, Hochman announced that he was asking the court to deny the habeas corpus petition, arguing the brothers’ new evidence wasn’t credible or admissible.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman and Ashley Riegle contributed to this report.
