Acknowledges violating dozens of recent court orders

DOJ acknowledges violating dozens of recent court orders in New Jersey

The self-assessment came amid rising concern among judges managing a flood of immigration cases.

By Kyle Cheney

The Trump administration acknowledged violating court orders issued by New Jersey’s federal judges more than 50 times over the past 10 weeks in cases stemming from the Trump administration’s mass deportation push.

Associate Deputy Attorney General Jordan Fox, who was tapped in December to help lead the Justice Department’s New Jersey office after temporary pick Alina Habba was forced out, said those violations were spread across more than 547 immigration cases that have flooded the courts since early December, straining both prosecutors and judges.

The violations include a deportation to Peru that occurred in violation of a judge’s injunction, as well as three missed deadlines to release ICE detainees.

There were also six missed deadlines to respond to court orders, 12 missed deadlines to provide bond hearings to ICE detainees, 17 out-of-state transfers after judges had issued no-transfer orders, three instances of imposing release conditions in violation of court prohibitions and 10 instances of failing to produce evidence demanded by courts.

“We regret deeply all violations for which our Office is responsible. Those violations were unintentional and immediately rectified once we learned of them,” Fox wrote in a letter accompanying the report. “We believe that [the Department of Homeland Security’s] violations were also unintentional.”

Fox’s conciliatory approach stood in stark contrast with previous statements from the Justice Department and ICE that have blamed “rogue judges” for the administration’s noncompliance.

DOJ produced the catalog of violations in response to an order by U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz.

Farbiarz’s concerns mirror similar alarms raised by judges across the country who have described increasingly frequent violations of their edicts by administration officials carrying out the Trump administration’s mass deportation surge.

Judges in Minnesota recently assessed that the administration violated 94 court orders in January. And judges across the country have described “rampant” and “purposeful” violations of their orders.

Farbiarz praised the thoroughness of Fox’s report but said its conclusions were alarming, especially upon a closer inspection of the math.

“The sworn materials show that this case is not fully an outlier,” he wrote. “Judicial orders should never be violated.”

Farbiarz ordered the administration to follow up by Feb. 25 with a detailed plan for how it intends to fix its recent burst of violations, particularly given Fox’s assertion that the errors were a result of by sky-high caseloads caused by the mass deportation push.

“If this is an accurate diagnosis of the issue,” the judge said, “it will be important for the Court to understand the across-the-board administrative steps the Respondents are taking to ensure 100% compliance with judicial orders.