Judge: Trump deportation order for man in Hawaii ‘inhumane’
SAN FRANCISCO — A Trump administration order to deport a man who entered the country illegally nearly three decades ago and became a respected businessman in Hawaii was “inhumane” and “contrary to the values of the country and its legal system,” a federal judge wrote Tuesday in an unusually impassioned opinion.
“President Trump has claimed that his immigration policies would target the ‘bad hombres,’” 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt said. “The government’s decision to remove Magana Ortiz shows that even the ‘good hombres’ are not safe.”
Reinhardt said the 9th Circuit lacked authority to block the March order to deport Ortiz to Mexico. Still, he said it was difficult to see how the order was consistent with President Donald Trump’s promise of an immigration system with heart.
Reinhardt said Ortiz, who came to the U.S. in 1989, was well-established in Hawaii’s coffee farming industry, paid his taxes and had three U.S. citizen children from whom he would be torn away.