Thank goodness January is over. A few updates as we head into the week:
The case reminds me of the adage, "If something is free, you’re the product."
For Haitian families, TPS began as an emergency escape in response to the devastating 2010 earthquake. As we’ve been discussing, the administration has tried to revoke their temporary protected status (TPS), which is now set to end on Tuesday, February 3. DHS’s website notes, “After consulting with interagency partners, Secretary Noem concluded that Haiti no longer meets the statutory requirements for TPS. This decision was based on a review conducted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, input from relevant U.S. government agencies, and an analysis indicating that allowing Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is inconsistent with U.S. national interests.” There are cases moving through the courts that could disallow the arbitrary termination, but the Supreme Court muddied the waters in an earlier decision off of the Shadow Docket that permitted some deportations to proceed. DHS’s website now admonishes, “If you are an alien who is currently a beneficiary of TPS for Haiti, you should prepare to depart if you have no other lawful basis for remaining in the United States.” The loss of that status will make Haitians, and others, easy targets for the administration’s deportation efforts.
But as we head into this new week, there is also some good news, and a judicial opinion that will make you smile. Released!
The Judge’s opinion begins like this: “Before the Court is the petition of asylum seeker Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son for protection of the Great Writ of habeas corpus. They seek nothing more than some modicum of due process and the rule of law.” He explains, “The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children. This Court and others regularly send undocumented people to prison and orders them deported but do so by proper legal procedures.” With that, five-year-old Liam, who won our hearts with his blue bunny ears hat and Spider-Man backpack, was released from immigration detention. He should never have been detained—he and his father were in asylum proceedings, which gives them protection from deportation until their rights are determined. Liam is just five. The heartless way he was treated by ICE and CBP is far too reminiscent of how Nazis treated children. The reality is, there are a lot of Liams out there, and their parents, too. We don’t know all of them by name, but it’s certain their stories are every bit as gut-wrenching. Due process denied so DHS can make its quotas. The people who set them, Donald Trump, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, and others need to be stopped before it gets even worse. It’s past time for Congress to step up. There is now reporting of a measles outbreak in the detention facility.
The Judge’s opinion is unusual. In just three pages, he schools the government and educates the public. Trump and his cronies will surely criticize the Judge, Fred Biery, in the Western District of Texas as just another activist leftist judge. He is, after all, a Clinton appointee. But Judge Biery, who was born in McAllen, Texas, went to Texas Lutheran College, then Southern Methodist University for his law degree, and served in the Army reserves in the 1970s. He has been on the bench for more than thirty years. Judge Biery has entered other opinions that have drawn attention for their eccentricity. This one is worth a thorough read. “Apparent also is the government's ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence. Thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation. Among others were: 1. ‘He has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People.’ 2. ‘He has excited domestic Insurrection among us.’ 3. ‘For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us.’ 4. ‘He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our Legislatures.’ ‘We the people’ are hearing echoes of that history. And then there is that pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and persons or things to be seized. U.S. CONST. amend. IV.” “Civics lesson to the government,” Judge Biery continues. “Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster. That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.”
He closes like this: “Philadelphia, September 17, 1787: ‘Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have? ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’ With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike,”
Father and son may still be deported if they don’t receive asylum, as Judge Biery acknowledges. But he has ruled the right way according to our laws and called out the government for doing the wrong thing, in colorful language designed to attract attention. In a moment where standing up for what is right is not always easy, federal district court judges are doing their fair share of the heavy lifting. As we head into the new week, Trump will continue to try to persuade us, with the use of brute force, that his overall success is inevitable. The Supreme Court has said he can commit no crimes as president. His administration has quite literally gotten away with murder, at least so far, on the streets of Minneapolis. Who can stop him now? We can. Those of you who have read my book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual For Keeping A Democracy, know that I argue this aura of inevitability Trump projects is a hallmark of wannabe strong men, an effort to convince people they want to subjugate to give up without a fight. We must not do that. Anne Applebaum, who writes about authoritarianism, noted Sunday morning on MSNOW that we have the opportunity to do something every day that will change the course of Trump’s control over the country and counter the creeping miasma of fascism. David Rothkopf makes the point like this: “The heavyweight champion of the past decade in American politics is on the ropes. His knees are getting rubbery. His hands are bruised. His eyes are glassy. Sometimes he doesn’t seem to even know where he is.” Rothkopf details all of the recent moments where punches Trump tried to land went astray, revealing mounting weakness. Trump is getting weaker. People who refuse to be the country he wants are getting stronger. Don’t let him blind you with his myth. We’re in this together, Joyce You're currently a free subscriber to Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance . For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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Sunday, February 1, 2026
The Week Ahead
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