On Minnesota's Powerline blog, lawyer Scott Johnson has been doing a lot of work on the case of Alexis Saborit, a Cuban illegal, who came in through the Mexican border 14 years ago, not by rafting to the US, and has stayed ever since.
Earlier this month, he beheaded his girlfriend America Thayer with a machete, in broad daylight and in front of witnesses. This is not at all his first crime, it's not even his first crime involving a machete, although that one involved a "standoff" with police and no beheading, presumably because the police had guns.
The reason he wasn't either deported or detained amounts to Kritarchy—in Zadvydas v. Davis (2001), the Supremes ruled that aliens whose countries wouldn't take them back had to be set free. Part of Trump's immigration platform in 2016 was to put a stop to it, and he actually kept that one pretty well.
A post called From the Saborit file: Restatement [August 9, 2021] Johnson sets forth the immigration facts in the Saborit case.
These are the immigration-related facts as I understand them and inferences I have drawn. ICE has given me the dates of the events. I have drawn inferences regarding the asylum issue based on the facts set forth and on responses to my questions withholding information because it is deemed “confidential.”
- Saborit entered the US in 2007 at the El Paso port of entry.
- I infer that Saborit sought asylum. His case was set for hearing.
- Saborit failed to appear for his hearing in 2009.
- An immigration judge entered a deportation order against Saborit in absentia.
- Saborit subsequently sought a rehearing. His immigration case was reopened and reheard.
- The rehearing resulted in a second deportation order in 2012.
- ICE attempted to remove Saborit to Cuba based on the 2012 final order of removal. ICE was unable to obtain the necessary travel documents from Cuba.
- As a result, and following a review of his custody, he was released on an order of supervision in 2012.
- The 2001 Supreme Court decision in Zadvydas v. Davis (2001) limits the length of time that ICE can detain noncitizens who are subject to a deportation order. The ruling generally precludes the agency from holding noncitizens with final orders of removal for more than six months if their actual removal cannot occur in the reasonably foreseeable future. This is often due to a foreign government’s refusal to accept the repatriation of its nationals.
- On January 25, 2019, the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security announced the implementation of the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the Remain in Mexico program. The policy allowed US border officers to return non-Mexican asylum seekers to locations in Mexico as their claims were adjudicated in US immigration courts.
- The Remain in Mexico program sought to address the perversity at the heart of the immigration aspect of the Saborit case.
- On June 1, 2021, the Biden administration’s DHS formally ended the Remain in Mexico program. The program was ended by this memo.
- The Star Tribune has reported precisely one story on the case. Dated July 30, it carries the bylines of reporters Chao Xiong and Paul Walsh. The Star Tribune has yet to report Saborit’s immigration status.
- When Saborit beheaded America he was on his way to a hearing in the arson case. In other posts on the Saborit case I have reported in some detail on the November 2020 arson case charging three felonies against Saborit.
Further from Powerline on this case.
The one by John Hinderaker is not about the immigration issue as such, but about a different aspect of Kritarchy: judges who insist on releasing dangerous criminals.
