The habeas transcript

A remarkable document gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the out-of-control lawfare that is habeas corpus.

Today (Friday, February 6), another 30 habeas petitions were filed, seeking the release of illegal aliens detained by ICE. That brings to 744 the number filed so far in 2026, over some 31 “business” days. That works out, exactly, to one per hour, seven days a week. And the pace of filing is accelerating.

The transcript is from a hearing held back on Tuesday (February 3) in a federal courtroom. The document can be read here, under the headline,

The unfathomable Minnesota transcript that must be read, as it tells the reality of America today

[The full 46-page PDF can be read at the above link. I will use the page and line numbers from this PDF as a reference.]

What is unusual about the transcript is that it is a public document. Nearly all the contents of these habeas case files are kept in secret.

A Biden-appointed federal judge, Jerry Blackwell, was holding a contempt-of-court hearing on five habeas cases. Blackwell was seeking to imprison two government lawyers–Julie Lee and Ana Voss–for the failure of ICE to release the detainees fast enough.

You may have heard some quotes from Ms. Le, who told the open court that her job “sucks” and that she welcomed imprisonment for contempt as an opportunity to finally get some much-needed sleep.

After the hearing, Ms. Le was returned to her regular post as an attorney for ICE. Ms. Voss quit the Dept. of Justice altogether.

Judge Blackwell gives a speech from the bench beginning at page 6, line 5. He speaks of “noncompliance with court orders.” He does not use the word as I understand it’s meaning. Blackwell equates delay (for logistical reasons) with outright denial and contempt of his authority.

I have not reviewed all 744 cases, but of the dozens of cases I have reviewed, ICE and the federal government have complied 100 percent of the time. What has not happened is compliance on the timeline demanded by the judges, where the deadline is usually “immediately” (p. 14, line 15), or within a few hours or a day of an order being issued on a weekend or at odd hours.

My understanding is that Le and Voss were the last two government lawyers working these now 744 files. There may literally be no one left in the office to receive the orders when issued.

Page 8, line 7, Blackwell asserts that these cases involve “individuals who are lawfully
present in the United States.” Note the use of the present tense. I do not believe that to be true. I am certain, though, that Blackwell is merely repeating what he has been told by lawyers for the detainees.

It appears that Blackwell’s position is that all of his orders are nonnegotiable. Ok.

But he goes further to assert that the government can’t undertake any law enforcement efforts until it is in a position to comply with his every order instantaneously. (Page 8, line 11.) Law enforcement must move as quickly as district courts demand, or in the inverse, no faster than district courts care to operate.

The cases are all filed in secret, but in the few instances where the underlying facts have been made public (through media accounts) a more nuanced version always emerges.

The facts usually involved an individual who entered the U.S. more-or-less legally, and were considered to have legal status at one point in time. But, as their status changed, through expiration, revocation, or petition denial, they were no longer here legally, and are now subject to removal.

The real purpose of the habeas petitions appears to be to keep the aliens in America, as they seek to appeal, restart, or refile their cases, or just to wait until a change in administrations

Reports have the feds deporting some 700,000 aliens over the past year. You would imagine that some mistakes were made along the way. But 30 mistakes, every single day, just in Minnesota? Seems implausible.

Page 12, line 24, Mr. Le reports that her first day on habeas duty was Monday, January 5. What follows in the transcript is page after page going over details of missed deadlines and missing status reports. In every instance, it appears, the detainee was eventually released. There is no discussion of whether the detainee should have been released: that’s taken as a given.

Skipping ahead, p. 30, line 11, the overwhelmed Ms. Le viewed her job as assisting detainees, not representing the people (citizens, voters, taxpayers) of the United States. Page 32, line 21, Le states,

And I share the same concern with you, Your Honor. I am not white, as you can see. And my family’s at risk as any other people that might get picked up too, so I share the same concern, and I took that concern to heart.

But, again, fixing a system, a broken system, I don’t have a magic button to do it. I don’t have the power or the voice to do it. I only can do it within the ability and the capacity that I have.

And every cases I touch, I give it 100 percent. Never in my mind that one petitioner is more than the others. They all important to me.

She’s working for detainees, not the government. The detainees are already represented by attorneys. The idea of an adversarial system, where there are two sides to an issue, has been completely lost.

Let’s look at one of these cases. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune,

Despite judge’s order, ICE sent an immigrant to Mexico instead of back to Minnesota

If you read down to paragraph 3, you find out,

Government attorneys argue that [Emilio] Pena Jimenez agreed to voluntarily leave the country two days before any court order mandating his return to Minnesota.

Why isn’t this “case closed”? The subject agreed to voluntary removal. The agreement was signed before any court order was issued. But that’s not the result his attorney wanted.

The Star Tribune reports,

Responding to the contempt of court motion, the government said in a court filing “Pena [Jimenez] knowingly voluntarily and intelligently” agreed to voluntary departure and that it was “interpreted into his preferred language.”

Pena’s lawyer is asking,

If the government continues refusing to return Pena Jimenez to Minnesota, Kantor asked the court that a “third party” be appointed to do so — at the government’s expense and with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service.

On what basis? The case is File No. 26-cv-850.

The beatings will continue until morale improves. District judges have scheduled two more “show cause” public hearings for Monday afternoon (February 9).

Case No. 26-cv-941 was filed on Monday, February 2. The purpose of the hearing on the 9th is unknown since filings in the case are kept secret.

Case No. 26-cv-1065 was filed yesterday, February 5. The purpose of the hearing on the 9th is unknown since filings in the case are kept secret. But I repeat myself.

Will anyone from the DOJ show up on Monday?

[Update: a decision in the U.S. 5th circuit court of appeals (covering Texas and the southwest, but not Minnesota) has found against this theory of habeas corpus applying to illegal aliens. A similar case in the 8th circuit (which includes Minnesota) is still pending.]