Latest news with #Cerna
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Administration: ‘Many' Venezuelans sent to El Salvador prison had no U.S. criminal record
The Trump administration has admitted in federal court documents that 'many' Venezuelans it accused of being dangerous gang members and deported through presidential wartime powers have no criminal records in the United States, but argued it was only because they had only been in the U.S. briefly. President Donald Trump used a centuries-old law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, to deport the Venezuelans without due process in the U.S., saying they were members of the feared Tren de Aragua gang. 'The lack of criminal records does not indicate they pose a limited threat. In fact, based upon their association with Tren de Aragua, the lack of specific information about each specific individual actually highlights the risk they pose,' said Robert Cerna, a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, in a sworn statement filed Monday night to a the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. READ MORE: Trump sent these Venezuelans to El Salvador mega prison. Their families deny gang ties. Cerna's statement and other court documents offer critical insight into how the federal government justifies which Venezuelans to send to a mega prison in El Salvador as part of a deal the Trump administration brokered with President Nayib Bukele last month. Bukele said they would remain in prison for at least a year. The move has ignited widespread alarm over the extent of Trump's executive authority and due process violations. The White House has argued that the deportations were justified in the name of public safety. Cerna's statement is part of a lawsuit challenging an executive order in which Trump directed his administration to use the wartime powers to deport Venezuelan citizens over 14 years old if they are Tren de Aragua members. Cerna is the Acting Field Office Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations for ICE in Harlingen, Texas. Over the weekend, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the deportations blocked, telling the administration during a hearing to bring back any planes already in the air carrying deportees. The Trump administration sent more than 200 Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador anyway, raising questions about whether the White House violated the court ruling. The Justice Department has denied the government defied U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's written orders. READ MORE: Trump deports hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members. Did he defy a court order? Cerna said the lack of information the government has on the deported Venezuelans 'demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete file.' Neither Cerna nor the federal government has released any evidence publicly on the criminal and personal history of the deported Venezuelans. The ICE official described how the agency had determined their personal and criminal backgrounds and shared details of charges, arrests, and convictions without identifying specific people. He indicated that ICE databases showed that 'numerous' individuals had been arrested during federal gang operations or had criminal histories in the U.S. That includes allegations of murder for one individual as well as arrests and charges for aggravated assault with a weapon, drug possession, and sex crimes. He also said several of the individuals had been under investigation for kidnapping, drug trafficking, murder, and other serious crimes in Venezuela and elsewhere. ICE 'carefully vetted' the individuals through court records, surveillance, law enforcement encounters, interviews, victim testimonies, criminal evidence members, financial transactions, computer checks, and confessions of membership, Cerna said. He said the agency did not rely solely on social media, photos of gang gestures and tattoos to link people to the Tren de Aragua gang. U.S. authorities have linked some tattoos to Tren de Aragua, but experts say that Tren de Aragua members don't have any specific tattoos tied to affiliation. Attorneys and immigration advocates say that the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act is unlawful and that the Venezuelans were entitled to due process and the opportunity to show a judge that they do not belong to Tren de Aragua. Families of three men who appear to have been deported and imprisoned in El Salvador told the Miami Herald that their relatives have no gang affiliation – and two said their relatives had never been charged with a crime in the U.S. or elsewhere. One has been previously accused by the U.S. government of ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, but his family denies any connection. On Monday Judge Boasberg asked the administration for more details about the deportation flights during a hearing on Monday. The Justice Department did not answer questions, citing national security. Cerna claimed in another sworn statement that the passengers on a third flight to El Salvador had final orders of removal and had not been solely deported under the wartime authority. READ MORE: Judge orders DOJ lawyers to justify secrecy around El Salvador deportations: reports On Tuesday, Trump called Boesberg 'a radical left lunatic of a judge, a troublemaker, and an agitator' on social media. He called for the long-time federal judge's impeachment, prompting an extraordinary admonishment from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. In a statement, the chief justice said that 'for more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.' Roberts, who was appointed to the high court by President George W. Bush, said 'the normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.' Lawyers and experts have warned that Trump's public lashing of Boesberg and his potential defiance of the court order constitute an attack on checks and balances, a key tenet of American democracy that keeps the three branches of government accountable to each other. 'The Trump administration's decisions this weekend are part and parcel of a campaign of mass deportation and evisceration of rule of law,' said Hannah Flamm, an attorney and acting senior policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project, a New York-based legal aid and advocacy group. The Alien Enemies Act has only been used three times before, all during times of war. The last time it was used led to the internment of Japanese immigrants and Americans of Japanese descent in U.S. camps during World War II.
Miami Herald
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Administration: ‘Many' Venezuelans sent to El Salvador prison had no U.S. criminal record
The Trump administration has admitted in federal court documents that 'many' Venezuelans it accused of being dangerous gang members and deported through presidential wartime powers have no criminal records in the United States, but argued it was only because they had only been in the U.S. briefly. President Donald Trump used a centuries-old law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, to deport the Venezuelans without due process in the U.S., saying they were members of the feared Tren de Aragua gang. 'The lack of criminal records does not indicate they pose a limited threat. In fact, based upon their association with Tren de Aragua, the lack of specific information about each specific individual actually highlights the risk they pose,' said Robert Cerna, a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, in a sworn statement filed Monday night to a the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. READ MORE: Trump sent these Venezuelans to El Salvador mega prison. Their families deny gang ties. Cerna's statement and other court documents offer critical insight into how the federal government justifies which Venezuelans to send to a mega prison in El Salvador as part of a deal the Trump administration brokered with President Nayib Bukele last month. Bukele said they would remain in prison for at least a year. The move has ignited widespread alarm over the extent of Trump's executive authority and due process violations. The White House has argued that the deportations were justified in the name of public safety. Cerna's statement is part of a lawsuit challenging an executive order in which Trump directed his administration to use the wartime powers to deport Venezuelan citizens over 14 years old if they are Tren de Aragua members. Cerna is the Acting Field Office Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations for ICE in Harlingen, Texas. Over the weekend, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the deportations blocked, telling the administration during a hearing to bring back any planes already in the air carrying deportees. The Trump administration sent more than 200 Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador anyway, raising questions about whether the White House violated the court ruling. The Justice Department has denied the government defied U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's written orders. READ MORE: Trump deports hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members. Did he defy a court order? Cerna said the lack of information the government has on the deported Venezuelans 'demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete file.' Neither Cerna nor the federal government has released any evidence publicly on the criminal and personal history of the deported Venezuelans. The ICE official described how the agency had determined their personal and criminal backgrounds and shared details of charges, arrests, and convictions without identifying specific people. He indicated that ICE databases showed that 'numerous' individuals had been arrested during federal gang operations or had criminal histories in the U.S. That includes allegations of murder for one individual as well as arrests and charges for aggravated assault with a weapon, drug possession, and sex crimes. He also said several of the individuals had been under investigation for kidnapping, drug trafficking, murder, and other serious crimes in Venezuela and elsewhere. ICE 'carefully vetted' the individuals through court records, surveillance, law enforcement encounters, interviews, victim testimonies, criminal evidence members, financial transactions, computer checks, and confessions of membership, Cerna said. He said the agency did not rely solely on social media, photos of gang gestures and tattoos to link people to the Tren de Aragua gang. U.S. authorities have linked some tattoos to Tren de Aragua, but experts say that Tren de Aragua members don't have any specific tattoos tied to affiliation. Attorneys and immigration advocates say that the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act is unlawful and that the Venezuelans were entitled to due process and the opportunity to show a judge that they do not belong to Tren de Aragua. Families of three men who appear to have been deported and imprisoned in El Salvador told the Miami Herald that their relatives have no gang affiliation – and two said their relatives had never been charged with a crime in the U.S. or elsewhere. One has been previously accused by the U.S. government of ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, but his family denies any connection. Heated court proceedings On Monday Judge Boasberg asked the administration for more details about the deportation flights during a hearing on Monday. The Justice Department did not answer questions, citing national security. Cerna claimed in another sworn statement that the passengers on a third flight to El Salvador had final orders of removal and had not been solely deported under the wartime authority. READ MORE: Judge orders DOJ lawyers to justify secrecy around El Salvador deportations: reports On Tuesday, Trump called Boesberg 'a radical left lunatic of a judge, a troublemaker, and an agitator' on social media. He called for the long-time federal judge's impeachment, prompting an extraordinary admonishment from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. In a statement, the chief justice said that 'for more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.' Roberts, who was appointed to the high court by President George W. Bush, said 'the normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.' Lawyers and experts have warned that Trump's public lashing of Boesberg and his potential defiance of the court order constitute an attack on checks and balances, a key tenet of American democracy that keeps the three branches of government accountable to each other. 'The Trump administration's decisions this weekend are part and parcel of a campaign of mass deportation and evisceration of rule of law,' said Hannah Flamm, an attorney and acting senior policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project, a New York-based legal aid and advocacy group. The Alien Enemies Act has only been used three times before, all during times of war. The last time it was used led to the internment of Japanese immigrants and Americans of Japanese descent in U.S. camps during World War II.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Feds' Legal Arguments for These Deportations Are Laughably Weak
The Trump administration maintains that more than 200 people deported last weekend to a prison in El Salvador were criminals with ties to a dangerous Venezuelan gang. But legal documents filed in federal court as part of the government's attempt to clarify the legal basis for those deportations seem to raise more questions than they answer—and indicate that some, if not many, of the deportees were not the threats that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claims they are. In some cases, those individuals were deported simply for being in the same car or house as other suspects. In others, a Trump administration official admits that there is little specific evidence tying some deportees to any crime—and then, incredibly, argues that the lack of evidence should be taken as proof of criminality. "The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat," wrote Robert L. Cerna, an acting field office director for ICE, in a sworn affidavit filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., on Monday night. Cerna goes on to write that "the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose. It demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile." That's a laughably weak argument. Cerna is arguing that the Trump administration has the power to deport any immigrant suspected of having ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, even if the evidence is thin and never proven in any court. Imagine siting on a jury and being told by the prosecution that there would be no evidence presented of any crimes being committed, but that you should simply take the prosecutors' word that the suspect seems like a bad guy. Any reasonable juror would vote to acquit—if the judge didn't laugh the prosecutors out of court first. Or simply flip the argument around. Would Cerna take evidence of criminality as proof that someone was not a criminal? Of course not. No wonder the Trump administration was in such a rush to bypass due process for these deportations. To be fair, the affidavit also contains enough details of crimes committed by Tren de Aragua gang members to conclude that at least some of those deported over the weekend probably got what they deserved. That doesn't excuse the rushed, unlawful process—if anything, it should only stress the importance of due process as a way to sort out the real threats from everyone else. Instead, Cerna's affidavit paints the picture of a Trump administration and ICE management that were determined to deport as many people as possible, no matter how tenuous the connection to Tren de Aragua or any crime. Near the end, Cerna notes that some of the suspects arrested and deported by ICE were simply caught up in the immigration dragnet because they happened to be near other of ICE's targets. "According to a review of ICE databases, numerous individuals removed were arrested together as part of federal gang operations, including two individuals who were in a vehicle during a Federal Bureau of Investigations gun bust with known [Tren de Aragua] members; four individuals who were arrested during the execution of an Homeland Security Investigations New York City operation; and four individuals who were encountered during the execution of an arrest warrant targeting [Tren de Aragua] gang member, all of whom were in a residence with a firearm and attempted to flee out the back of the residence," he writes. Could those individuals have been engaged in some sort of illegal activity with known gang members when they were apprehended? Sure. But that's exactly the point of immigration courts and the criminal justice system: to sort out those tricky questions before someone is locked up, deported, or both. The logic on display in Cerna's affidavit is fundamentally at odds with due process or any sense of limited executive powers when it comes to prosecuting crimes. It runs counter to President Donald Trump's own campaign promises about restoring law and order. It is, in short, the sort of thing that only the most committed bootlicker could even attempt to stomach. The post The Feds' Legal Arguments for These Deportations Are Laughably Weak appeared first on
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Many' alleged gang members deported by Trump didn't have criminal records in the US: ICE
Many of the noncitizens who were deported pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act on Saturday did not have criminal records, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said in a sworn filing overnight. In a sworn declaration, ICE Acting Field Office Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Robert Cerna argued that "the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose" and "demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile." The declaration was included in the Trump administration's recent motion to vacate Judge James Boasberg's temporary restraining order blocking deportations pursuant to the AEA. "While it is true that many of the [Tren de Aragua gang] members removed under the AEA do not have criminal records in the United States, that is because they have only been in the United States for a short period of time. The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat," Cerna said. MORE: Timeline: Trump's race against courts to deport alleged gang members under Alien Enemies Act The admission that many of the men lacked criminal records – and were deported on the assumption that they might be terrorists – comes as top Trump administration officials insist that the men were violent criminals, with President Donald Trump labeling them "monsters." Cerna wrote that some of the men have been convicted or arrested for crimes in the U.S., including for murder, assault, harassment, and drug offenses, writing that ICE personnel "carefully vetted each individual alien to ensure they were in fact members of TdA." To determine whether a noncitizen was a "member of TdA," he said law enforcement allegedly used victim testimony, financial transactions, computer checks, and other "investigative techniques." "ICE did not simply rely on social media posts, photographs of the alien displaying gang-related hand gestures, or tattoos alone," Cerna said. Department of Justice lawyers said the judge's temporary restraining orders "are an affront to the President's broad constitutional and statutory authority to protect the United States from dangerous aliens who pose grave threats to the American people." Boasberg ordered the DOJ to submit, by noon Tuesday, a sworn declaration about how many noncitizens were deported under the AEA and when they were removed from the country. 'Many' alleged gang members deported by Trump didn't have criminal records in the US: ICE originally appeared on
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Yahoo
Innocent driver's family sues Dallas after deadly police chase crash
The Brief Anthony Welch was an innocent driver who died from the impact of a high-speed police chase crash. His wife, Dee, remains hospitalized in critical condition. The couple's children say they are suing because they want to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. DALLAS - The family of a man who died when a police chase suspect crashed is suing the city of Dallas over that chase. The backstory Anthony Welch was killed in a car crash on Interstate 35E near Red Oak on Jan. 16. He and his wife, Dee, were in a vehicle that was struck by a wanted murder suspect fleeing Dallas police at a high rate of speed. Anthony died at the scene. Dee was critically injured. The suspect, 29-year-old Gabriel Cerna, was shot by Dallas police officers after he pointed a gun at them and tried to run away from the scene of the crash. Cerna also remains in the hospital. Once he is released, he will be booked into the Dallas County jail on charges of evading arrest, capital murder, and aggravated robbery. What they're saying Attorney Quentin Brogdon is representing the Welch family. "Their children are just devastated. The family's devastated about what has happened here," Brogdon said. "As we are talking here today, Ms. Welch is fighting for her life in a hospital where she's lost her husband." The attorney filed a negligence and wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the family against Cerna and the city of Dallas. It alleges the officers' decision to pursue Cerna on the interstate put bystanders, including the Welches, at risk. "The circumstances of the police chase here should have dictated that the police save the apprehension for another day. They were chasing at high speed this criminal suspect for over 2.5 miles on a busy highway – I-35E – at 10:30 a.m. with lots of other cars and traffic around. It was unsafe," Brogdon said. The family is seeking a minimum of $1 million in damages. The other side The Welch family could have difficulty seeking legal action against the city of Dallas due to the law of qualified immunity. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, qualified immunity "protects state and local officials, including law enforcement officers, from individual liability unless the official violated a clearly established constitutional right." Brogdon remains hopeful that his clients will prevail. "The difference that the law gives police officers is not unlimited. Officers have to use reasonable care, and they cannot act in a reckless manner that needlessly endangers the public," he said. What we know The Dallas Police Department's officers are allowed to chase suspects involved in violent felonies or when the officer perceives the suspect to be an immediate threat to public safety. Affidavits for Cerna's arrest state that he is the suspect in an armed robbery that happened at a shoe store in Dallas in December, as well as a murder that happened in Mesquite in December. Undercover DEA agents spotted him in the passenger seat of an SUV at a gas station on the day of the chase and notified Dallas police because he had outstanding warrants. Undercover Dallas officers began covertly following him at that point and called for a police helicopter and uniformed officers to conduct a felony traffic stop. Once the clearly marked Dallas police squad cars arrived, the affidavit states the driver of the SUV pulled over on the side of I-35E. Cerna allegedly ignored commands to exit the SUV, pushed the female driver out, "causing her to fall out in the middle of the highway," and then took off. A Dallas police sergeant authorized the chase "due to the severity of the violent offense," the affidavit states. What we don't know Dallas police haven't commented on the chase. They also haven't yet released body camera or dash camera video of the officer-involved shooting. In a statement on Tuesday, both the city of Dallas and the Dallas Police Department said they do not comment on pending litigation. The Source The information in this story comes from a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Welch family, interviews with the Welch family's attorney, arrest warrant affidavits, jail records, and past news coverage.
