Brown University Professor Is Deported Despite a Judge's Order

It's unfortunately political to its core, but it's absolutely relevant to all of our lives.

Reading some of the comments on the latest post from YC's immigration lawyer felt like a chilling sign of times to come.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43363056

Too late. It's been flagged.

This has absolutely nothing to do with technology, it is purely political, and should not be here.

Congress is intended to be able to enforce via impeachment, but if congress declines to impeach, there's really no consequences for the executive branch.

FDR threatened to pack the court with judges sympathetic to his policies. The Supreme Court Court backed down and ruled, in essence, the New Deal legal. In theory a court can issue arrest warrants but that isn’t going to happen with Trump. SCOTUS has already ruled that Presidents are largely immune to arrest and the President can pardon whomever he wants. Thus, effectively there is no legal mechanism for enforcement.

Much of the American system relies on established political norms for governance. Pretty much all of these norms are being gutted. No one knows what the long term impact will be but I believe the republic as we knew it is dead.

The US Marshalls are part of the Department of Justice, so in a criminal contempt case, the DOJ would be effectively arresting itself. Also, the President can pardon anyone of any federal crime for any reason without any possibility of judicial review. So criminal remedies seem ineffective.

As for fines - it looks like they're capped at $1000, and depending on the circumstances, the government might just be paying that fine to itself. So that doesn't seem effective either. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/402

If the executive branch is ignoring court orders, the constitution is de facto suspended. It’s in the ‘constitutional crisis’ phase when they’re threatening to ignore the courts. When they’re actually doing it, there is no longer a working constitution.

The remedies are to pray that the US Marshals don’t break their oath to the constitution and are willing to arrest their bosses for contempt of court when the courts order it.

Five days ago US Republicans "stopped time" with respect to a clock running that required a response to an appeal against Trump's tariffs.

~ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43358343

  Each day for the remainder of the first session of the 119th Congress shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622) with respect to a joint resolution terminating a national emergency declared by the President on February 1, 2025.

~ https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-resolutio...

"Each day [..] shall not constitute a calendar day"

An executive with a cowered majority can get away with almost anything when they can issue emergency orders and set aside an appeal and review process intended to temper such orders.

It's a triumph of creative lawyering over overt disobeying of judicial orders.

> Judges order means nothing if the executive branch decides not to enforce it and the legislature won't hold the executive accountable.

This administration will not act in good faith -- it will cite and use laws that it agrees with to compel action and when faced with anything not aligned with its goals will simply ignore it.

While there is resistance, it's going to be too little, too late. There's so many horrible aspects about this, but at the top is the fact that there's a sizable amount of the population which likes this. My faith in humanity is just about gone.

Separation of powers seems pretty toothless if it operates entirely on good faith.

Generally, the Justice Department would side with the Courts, even if the President didn't. The idea that the President would interfere in the workings of the department to that degree is a new failure point.

Technically, impeachment and removal is another mechanism that would have to fail, but that one failed long ago. The bar is set very high and the process has never been completed.

"There is a shortage of American doctors working in Dr. Alawieh’s area of specialty, transplant nephrology. ... Her patients included individuals awaiting transplants and those dealing with the complex conditions that can occur after a transplant"

Sounds like a pretty strong argument to me.

"argument for skilled foreign workers isn't real"

Tbf, what made the USA great (in addition to vast amounts of natural resources, peaceful neighbors, and technological dominance over the indigenous) was turning skilled foreign workers into skilled local workers

Jesus Christ. I'm pro foreign workers. I was one myself. My point is that these people keep saying they want skilled workers, and then bs like this story happens, proving that their argument about wanting skilled workers is just an excuse. They're really just against foreign workers.

The economics of a reverse brain drain are well known and their upside is clear.