Kangaroo Court Report #7 - Pigtails and deportation

MINNEAPOLIS — The cruelty of immigration proceedings in the United States is most evident when the power of the state is wielded against children.

This was the case in Immigration Judge Monte Miller’s courtroom at Ft. Snelling, Minn. this week where he deported dozens of families, chastised a mother for having her child in school and told a woman that she will be going back to Haiti, despite fears she will be killed.

Miller, appointed by former Attorney General William Barr in 2019, spends a lot of his time telling people that the help they’re looking for is not going to come.

PLEASE READ THE KANGAROO COURT PRIMER - IMMIGRATION JUDGES ARE NOT JUDGES AND THEIR OFFICES ARE NOT COURTROOMS

For those who lack an attorney, he gives them a list of lawyers but warns that the attorneys are very busy and are unlikely to pick up their case.

He tells exactly this to one woman during her hearing, after first questioning where her children were if not in court with her.

The kids were in school, the mother explained. But they did not have Miller’s permission to go to school, he said. He directs her to bring her children next time.

Like most people who cross paths with an immigration judge, this woman is not eligible for any kind of asylum.

“I came here for a better future for me and my daughters,” she tells Miller through an interpreter, but that’s not a legal basis to stay in the country, he says.

She’s given seven months to file something explaining why she and her daughters should be allowed to stay in the country, but Miller is skeptical she’ll succeed.

“It’s not fair to your children to get used to being here if they’re not gonna stay,” Miller tells her.

This kind of cold cruelty toward families is fairly common among all immigration judges but particularly Miller, who seems annoyed at anything that requires empathy.

One man from Venezuela says he was threatened and exhorted by people in his home country but again, Miller says that’s not a reason for asylum.

The man and his seven-year-old daughter, who’s wearing a matching sparkly purple sweatsuit with pink shoes and her hair in a ponytail braid with matching hair clips, are likely to be sent to Venezuela.

She is very brave during the proceeding. In fact, most of the kids here are. It’s the type of bravery we assign to war heroes and cops. It’s too bad the entire country simped so hard for those people, the soldiers and the police who refuse to raise a finger to protect our most vulnerable.

One Haitian woman says she left Haiti for the neighboring Dominican Republic, where she faced discrimination, before deciding to come to the United States. She says she will be killed if she goes back.

“I appreciate you sharing that with me,” Miller says but adds she’s going back to Haiti unless she has a legal reason to stay here.

A happy note during Miller’s hearing that day was a woman and her five-year-old daughter having their case administratively closed.

She’s originally from Cuba and due to the CIA’s inability to kill Fidel Castro, Congress passed the Cuban Adjustment Act in 1966. It allows any Cuban who has been in the U.S. for at least two years and admitted after Jan. 1959, the start of the Cuban Revolution, a path to becoming a lawful permanent resident.

Through an interpreter, the woman cries and says, “Thank you. Thank you” over and over.

“I think there’s some Kleenex there,” Miller waves dismissively with his hand in response.

The woman’s daughter has her hair in pigtails with pink bows. The girl is wearing a pink and white track suit and carries a matching lunch box.

A different five-year-old girl is not so lucky. She and her mother will likely be deported. She is not lucky enough to be from a country that the United States hates, like Cuba. She has flowers in her pigtails.

Miller didn't just focus his banality of evil on families this week in court, though.

One man who has worked construction in the U.S. for 22 years and has no criminal history will be given the chance to voluntarily deport himself. Federal paramilitary forces arrested him at his job site. He might be able to come back, if he does it the “right way."

The end of Miller’s morning includes him voicing frustration with two people who attended via video call and not in person.

“I’m so sick and tired of people not following court orders,” Miller says. Nevermind that his fellow employees in the Executive Branch have willfully disobeyed a plethora of court orders and laws during Trump’s second reign as the mad king.

The final act of Miller’s morning was to deny due process to several immigrants.

Dozens of people, including several families, have not shown up for their hearings in front of Miller. Perhaps they were scared immigration thugs would detain them. Perhaps they have already fled the country.

No matter. Miller orders all of them removed. There’s no need for your day in court when it’s not really a courtroom, I guess.