FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities • Hacker News Board

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#851

Post by dmix » Fri, Apr 25, 2025, 10:52 PM UTC

ty6853 wrote: post #820

mrandish wrote: post #808

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I remain horrified that people I really thought were normal Americans are willing to burn it all down just so they don't have to hear Spanish spoken in their doctor's office. The GP (or GGP, I forget) was discussing very specific legal technical details surrounding the judge's actions, the nature of the warrant and permissible locations for serving the warrant. I was pretty interested in that discussion - even thou…

Rule of law and its "equal, impartial, consistent enforcement" is totally a discretionary thing and very much by democratic support. The federal government has stopped enforcing low-level marijuana possession pretty much whole-sale, unless of course you show up at the wrong protests (see Timothy Teagan). Most people seem to think this is just dandy. I would say you would actually destroy "democracy" if you enforced t…

> and very much by democratic support

Immigration was consistently polled as the most important issue to voters in the last US election.

https://www.axios.com/2024/02/27/immigration-americans-top-p...

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#852

Post by dmix » Fri, Apr 25, 2025, 10:56 PM UTC

mrguyorama wrote: post #759

lurk2 wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

United States Code, Title 8, § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii) (2023) > (1)(A) Any person who […] > (iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation; […] > sha…

>attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien Does that cover "Hey, this door is closer to where we are going"? It's going to rest on convincing a jury that the only possible reason the suspect would go out that door would be the judge explicitly trying to help them evade arrest. IMO that should be impossible to prove but we have never taken "Beyond a reasonable doubt" seriously. "knowing or in r…

There was a series of other steps in the case before she let the guy use a door the public never uses. Including rushing his case through after confronting the agents and adjourning it without notifying the attorneys present in the court room. She instructed him through the door before the basic administrative tasks of the case were done.

If the details of what their witness (court deputy) says is true then it's pretty obvious what happened here.

Whether the government should give State judges that leeway is another issue.

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#853

Post by crote » Fri, Apr 25, 2025, 10:58 PM UTC

IncreasePosts wrote: post #526

andrewstuart2 wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an ideal world, maybe that's how it would work. In reality, that's not how it works or likely ever will work. So the comment you're replying to is a pragmatic approach to "how do we make the world we actually live in, not some idealized fantasy, safer?"

In reality, Trump's tough on illegal immigrants approach has drastically reduced the number of illegal border crossings compared to Biden's term. So, it seems that "people living in the country illegally" doesn't have to just be a fact of life, if there are federal policy changes that can radically alter the number of people who illegally enter the country.

Illegal border crossings are a distraction. The vast majority of "illegal immigrants" entered legally and overstayed their visa. This makes "radically altering the number of people entering illegally" a fairly meaningless achievement in practice.

For all we know those very same people who would have crossed the border illegally are now spending the extra money to enter legally and overstay: same number of incoming "illegal immigrants", but via different pathways.

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#854

Post by prepend » Fri, Apr 25, 2025, 10:59 PM UTC

jibal wrote: post #740

prepend wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hope it’s not. I would like for cops to be more humane in arresting people and stop going to place of work to grab people in front of their coworkers. But this seems like just as rude when they go to a “regular” person’s office in the middle of the day and arrest them. The argument is that if they notify the accused beforehand they may flee. But I don’t buy this as many people will likely turn themselves in i…

The discussion is about ICE arresting a sitting judge on a bogus political premise ... it has nothing to do with what you're talking about.

I’m talking about the reason why ICE was unable to arrest the suspect that is the nominal reason the FBI arrested this judge.

It seems as if the facts that the suspect was in the judge’s court and then not arrested by ICE at that point aren’t contested. And that seems like a weird thing to happen.

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#855

Post by Jensson » Fri, Apr 25, 2025, 11:01 PM UTC

hayst4ck wrote: post #849

Jensson wrote: post #838

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Infighting is how liberalism loses. While we sit and deliberate on whether this is the slice that merits actions, they are making plans to arrest more judges. The point of that excerpt is that there is not and likely will never be one single unifying objectionable action that provokes people into acting and we will slow walk our way into atrocity through inaction. The argument being made is that it will continually g…

The most important part is to get the people on your side, that is how you win. If an action results in less support for your side then you shouldn't do it if you want to win, it hurts you.

So all I am saying, stop hurting yourself, that only help your enemies. It is not me hurting you, it is you hurting you. This was how the Democrats lost the election, it wasn't Trump that won it was Democrats that lost it by hurting themselves over and over.

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#856

Post by gosub100 » Fri, Apr 25, 2025, 11:03 PM UTC

ein0p wrote: post #601

lurk2 wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

United States Code, Title 8, § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii) (2023) > (1)(A) Any person who […] > (iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation; […] > sha…

A case study on media narrative peddling: https://www.koat.com/article/las-cruces-former-judge-allegat... Original title: "Former New Mexico judge and wife arrested by ICE". It's as though he wasn't an active judge while harboring an alleged Tren De Aragua gang member. Protip: believe absolutely nothing you read in mainstream news sources on any even remotely political topic. Read between the lines, sort of like peop…

This is why I don't believe 90% of what they say about Trump. As soon as he took office in 2017 it was so obvious that MSM was paid to absolutely destroy him. Then in 2021 suddenly everyone single problem wasn't due to the president anymore.

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#857

Post by c_exclu » Fri, Apr 25, 2025, 11:05 PM UTC

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #772

lolinder wrote: post #721

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another key point is that generally speaking the charge of obstruction of justice requires two ingredients: 1) knowledge of a government proceeding 2) action with intent to interfere with that proceeding It doesn't especially matter in this case whether ICE was entitled to enter the courtroom because she's not being charged for refusing to allow them entry to the room. The allegation is that upon finding out about th…

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Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#858

Post by crote » Fri, Apr 25, 2025, 11:05 PM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #299

crote wrote: post #243

I'm not very familiar with US laws, but why wouldn't the FBI agents likewise be arrested for interfering with the judge's court case? Let's say I murder someone. I definitely did it, and there's plenty of evidence. What's stopping my hypothetical ICE buddy from showing up at my first court appearance, arresting me, and deporting me to a country without extradition by claiming that I am an "illegal immigrant"?

FBI != ICE. It was ICE that showed up to the courtroom. The FBI was only involved in the arrest after ICE was butt hurt and complained to daddy about the situation. ICE does not have authority to arrest citizens. That is why the FBI was involved to be able to make the arrest of a citizen

Ah, sorry, missed that detail. I should've said "why wouldn't the ICE agents likewise be arrested"

> ICE does not have authority to arrest citizens

ICE has the authority to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, does it not? That's why they were at the courtroom in the first place. If said citizen has zero interest in disproving ICE's belief that they aren't an illegal immigrant, who's going to stop ICE from arresting them?

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#859

Post by timewizard » Fri, Apr 25, 2025, 11:06 PM UTC

kristjansson wrote: post #816

timewizard wrote: post #624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replace illegal immigration with any other crime. What if a witness to a murder is an accused thief? Should we let thefts go unpunished because it may implicate their testimony in more severe crimes? What we actually do is offer the person reduced sentencing in exchange for their cooperation but we don't ignore their crime. In terms of illegal immigrants, if they haven't filed any paperwork, or haven't attempted to l…

> we don't ignore their crime And no one is asking the relevant authorities to ignore their duties to enforce immigration policy. They're just saying that state and local courts and police aren't the relevant authorities, and that they'd prefer to have the rest of the apparatus of government function with and for undocumented people.

> And no one is asking the relevant authorities to ignore their duties to enforce immigration policy.

I take a look at Los Angeles policy, which was recently ensconced into law, and it does specifically require authorities to ignore their duties. It even requires them to interfere in them.

They cannot, even if if they incidentally know a persons immigration status, contact immigration authorities with that information. If the immigration authorities find out anyways they are required to prevent those authorities from even _interviewing_ the subject let alone take them into custody. If requested to participate in any sort of joint operation they must decline just because it's the federal immigration authorities.

> and that they'd prefer to have the rest of the apparatus of government function

If that were the case then only the first restriction above would need to exist. Instead they literally provide an active shield against any enforcement of these federal laws and directly interfere with that function.

> for undocumented people.

If the city is so willing to shield this class of people from federal immigration enforcement then why aren't they also willing to then document them on their own terms? It seems inappropriate and careless to me and leaves these people in a slightly worse place than they were without the sanctuary status. It also makes it look like their primary concern is frustrating federal law and not truly caring for a desperate class of people.

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#860

Post by dmix » Fri, Apr 25, 2025, 11:09 PM UTC

tmiku wrote: post #674

s1artibartfast wrote: post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider the case of an arrest warrant for a rapist . Can it not be served at a courthouse? What if a judge smuggled them out a private door after being informed of the arrest warrant. Edit: the charge isn't for refusing to enforce. It's for smuggling someone out in attempt to actively impede their arrest.

You're missing the point - a rapist would have a criminal arrest warrant, which would absolutely be the courthouse's responsibility to enforce. The ICE agents attempted to disrupt a criminal proceeding to enforce a civil immigration warrant not signed by a judge. More on that distinction here: https://www.fletc.gov/ice-administrative-removal-warrants-mp...

The court hallways are considered public property so it's basically a debate on cultural semantics, not a legal one. The federal gov probably has inventive to not deter people showing up at state courts. But the federal gov is also pretty notorious for caring more about their own cases than the potential issues created for other levels of government.