Alma

Temu Goebbels 🤭

And still…🦗🦗🦗from Judge Chutkan

Could it have been headed to Ghana? archive.md/yQ6eb

Enrique is from Cuba. Nyo is from Burma. I don’t think either of them had ever heard of South Sudan before they were told that’s where they were headed on a military plane.

They have been detained in South Sudan since.

This is actually not correct about the deportees to South Sudan, nor for the ones to Eswatini.

💅🕴️🌹

Turducken of illegality…you should trademark that.

I wear a few somewhat incongruent hats these days. I am proud that, wearing one of them, I was fortunate enough to play a tiny part in bringing this phenomenal team effort to fruition.

This report is hard to read because it’s heartbreaking.

But please do read it - and share it widely 🙏

Ramirez v. Lyons, 1:25-cv-11514 - CourtListener.com Docket for Ramirez v. Lyons, 1:25-cv-11514 — Brought to you by Free Law Project, a non-profit dedicated to creating high quality open legal information.

No, but here is the case number: www.courtlistener.com/docket/70384...

Hurrah, Drew Ensign is here 😝

Oops, yeah- he was born 1880 :)

Speaking of story…One name appears a lot in his file: Edward Ennis, the head of the Alien Enemy Control Unit. Talk about a wild career path… someone should make a movie, “From AECU to ACLU.”

encyclopedia.densho.org/Edward_Ennis

In 1945, his Alien Enemy Proceedings were officially terminated.

There is so much more to his story, and that of his family- but that’s enough for now.

So in Nov 1943, my great grandfather got to meet my mom, his daughter Jane’s first child, who was born in Gila River Camp 11 months prior. Here he is with his wife at Gila, and the other one is my mom and her friend in the cart in which he proudly paraded his first grandchild around the camp.

Thankfully, in late 1943 (we always thought 1944), the AG agreed with the Board and ordered that my great grandfather be paroled and reunited with his family at Gila River Relocation Center. The grateful letter from his family belies the sadness and trauma the separation from him caused them.

But the reviewing authority disagreed, recommending a renewed finding that he was dangerous and should be interned.

For his next hearing, my great grandfather, a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist priest, wrote about his love of democracy, devotion to Buddhism, and opposition to the Shinto view that the Japanese emperor is god. He appears to have testified to the same. The Alien Enemy Hearing Board recommended his release.

During that time, my great grandfather’s wife and children wrote many pleading letters, and my great grandfather filed a petition for family reunification, to be “released” to the same War Relocation Authority camp where his wife and 5 kids were imprisoned.

Thus, the Attorney General ordered he be interned. He spent the next almost year and a half in several alien enemy camps.

A reviewing authority concurred.

The part that seems worth sharing here is how much process alien enemies received then compared to today, even during what I think most would agree was a shameful history of American history. After his first hearing, the Alien Enemy Hearing Board recommended he be found dangerous and interned.

I requested my great grandfather’s alien enemy file from the National Records Archive. 300ish pages arrived in parts. Some is just paperwork- immigration forms, the alien enemy questionnaire, etc. Parts feel too personal to share here- letters from his young daughters, pleading for his release.

So in Nov 1943, my great grandfather got to meet my mom, his daughter Jane’s first child, who was born in Gila River Camp 11 months prior. Here he is with his wife at Gila, and the other one is my mom and her friend in the cart in which he proudly paraded his first grandchild around the camp.

Thankfully, in late 1943 (we always thought 1944), the AG agreed with the Board and ordered that my great grandfather be paroled and reunited with his family at Gila River Relocation Center. The grateful letter from his family belies the sadness and trauma the separation from him caused them.

But the reviewing authority disagreed, recommending a renewed finding that he was dangerous and should be interned.

For his next hearing, my great grandfather, a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist priest, wrote about his love of democracy, devotion to Buddhism, and opposition to the Shinto view that the Japanese emperor is god. He appears to have testified to the same. The Alien Enemy Hearing Board recommended his release.

During that time, my great grandfather’s wife and children wrote many pleading letters, and my great grandfather filed a petition for family reunification, to be “released” to the same War Relocation Authority camp where his wife and 5 kids were imprisoned.

Thus, the Attorney General ordered he be interned. He spent the next almost year and a half in several alien enemy camps.

A reviewing authority concurred.