Judge Orders Immediate Release Of Immigrant Because Regime Can't Figure Out Where To Deport Him To And You Can't Just Hold Somebody Like Him Indefinitely

For a change, ICE actually grabbed an immigrant who might have deserved grabbing: A Rhode Island man who served 14 years in federal prison for organizing a plot to rob cocaine dealers at gunpoint, after serving six years in state prison for an armed home invasion.

And yet, today, a federal judge in Boston ordered Souvanh Keosouvanh, 46 and born in Laos, released by the end of tomorrow from the Plymouth County jail where ICE has stashed him since grabbing him in January - because of the quaint laws and regulations judges still follow, including ones requiring ICE to explain why it's suddenly arresting somebody who had previously been allowed free and providing proof it actually has a place to deport him in short order.

ICE initially detained Keosouvanh in April, 2023, not long after he was released from federal prison. But Laos, which does not have a repatriation treaty with the US, refused to take him back.  Keosouvanh was then freed again, in July, 2023, under "supervised release," which meant he had to promise to stay out of trouble and check in periodically with ICE.

ICE then grabbed him again on Dec. 28, telling him "changed circumstances" required his detention, according to court records.

His attorney filed a habeas-corpus motion in Providence federal court to seek his release; his case was then transferred to Boston federal court because he had been put in the Plymouth County jail, and habeas-corpus motions generally need to be filed in the court that covers where the person is imprisoned.

Today, US District Court Richard Stearns ordered his release by "the close of business" on Tuesday, writing that in their response to the motion, regime lawyers "fail to identify any 'changed circumstances' making the removal of petitioner Souvanh Keosouvanh significantly likely in the reasonably foreseeable future." 

A 2001 Supreme Court ruling says people in Keosouvanh's position can't continue to be detained if they really aren't about to be booted from the country "in the reasonably foreseeable future."

Earlier this month, another federal judge in Boston ordered two Cambodian refugees - who had stayed out of trouble for more than 20 years after convictions on far less serious offenses than Keosouvanh - freed on similar grounds.