Jennifer Lee Koh
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jenniferleekoh.bsky.social
Jennifer Lee Koh
@jenniferleekoh.bsky.social
450 followers 49 following 6 posts
Professor @ Pepperdine Law - Immigration, Criminal Law, Evidence. Co-Director Nootbaar Inst Law, Religion & Ethics.
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Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
santiagomayer.com
This is a concentration camp
July 1, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
the-independent.com
Purple Heart veteran shot in action self-deports after old drug charge resurfaces: ‘Can’t believe this is happening in America’
Purple Heart veteran self-deports to South Korea after ICE threatened detention
After 48 years in the U.S. and having taken two bullets for the country, Sae Joon Park left for South Korea
www.independent.co.uk
June 24, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
matthewstiegler.bsky.social
Reading this bombshell story, it's important to keep in mind who Reuveni is. He ain't no Resistance deepstater. He's the career DOJ guy with a measure of professional reputation who signed his name on numerous filings that I'd call deeply concerning and maybe worse, until he finally said no mas.
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Jun 24
🚨NEW: Erez Reuveni, the DOJ lawyer fired for his honesty in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, sends Congress a whistleblower letter detailing lawlessness at the DOJ around the CECOT deportations.

He says Emil Bove told the DOJ to respond to likely court orders blocking flights with "fuck you."
June 24, 2025 at 5:17 PM
jenniferleekoh.bsky.social
This is a shocking account of intentional and unprecedented defiance of the federal courts by a top DOJ lawyer. And: it was always going to be through immigration law. For earlier traces of executive branch failure to comply with the judiciary in immigration: www.yalelawjournal.org/feature/exec...
June 24, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
jamalgreene.bsky.social
All without a word of reasoning.
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Jun 23
DISASTROUS. This means they will send people to horrific situations with no due process — in direct violation of promises the Solicitor General made to the Court in previous cases.

This greenlights sending people to be enslaved in Libya or tortured in any random foreign country.
stevevladeck.bsky.social Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · Jun 23
#BREAKING: Over a (sharp) public dissent from the three Democratic appointees, #SCOTUS clears the way for the Trump administration to remove migrants to third countries *without* giving them an additional opportunity to contest whether they face persecution or other forms of mistreatment there:
June 23, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
mjsdc.bsky.social
Sotomayor: "Given its conduct in these proceedings, the Government’s posture resembles that of the arsonist who calls 911 to report firefighters for violating a local noise ordinance."

SCOTUS' intervention "expos[es] thousands to the risk of torture or death." www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
June 23, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
ejtaub.bsky.social
If you do not believe people are real human beings, you can commit the most depraved acts against them. The regime always uses dehumanizing language to describe people it doesn't like. In this case, they're using that language to treat people like trash they can dump all over the world. It's sick.
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · May 21
McLaughlin called this a "military operation" (total bull, it's a private Gulfstream jet contracted by ICE) and calls the men "uniquely violent monsters" and shows 8 pictures. She attacks Judge Murphy, calling him an "activist judge."

Every time she refers to the men, she calls them "monsters."
May 21, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
alvinvelazquez.bsky.social
I appreciate that @jenniferleekoh.bsky.social is commenting on immigration law through a lens that applies a combination of Christian theology, legal principles, and concern for the marginalized. www.christianitytoday.com/2025/04/kilm...
The Bible Warns About Rulers Who Put Themselves Above the Law - Christianity Today
A case of a wrongfully deported man puts the Trump administration's approach to due process in the spotlight.
www.christianitytoday.com
April 29, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Despite knowing the people on the search warrant weren't there, the ICE arrest team STILL took this family's phones, laptops, and life savings — and refused to leave a BUSINESS CARD so they could ask to get it back!

This stuff is sadly not unique to ICE; it happens with regular police raids too.
She said the agents didn’t care. “They were very dismissive, very rough, very careless,” she said. “I kept pleading. I kept telling them we weren’t criminals. They were treating us like criminals. We were here by ourselves. We didn’t do anything.” Marisa said the agents tore apart every square inch of the house and what few belongings they had, seizing their phones, laptops and their life savings in cash as “evidence.” “I told them before they left, I said you took my phone. We have no money. I just moved here,” she said. “I have to feed my children. I’m going to need gas money. I need to be able to get around. Like, how do you just leave me like this? Like an abandoned dog.”
April 29, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
newyorker.com
Barry Blitt’s cover for this week’s issue, “The First Hundred Days.” #NewYorkerCovers nyer.cm/ysrCZ47
April 28, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Last night, a federal judge in El Paso became the first to review ICE’s claim that someone was an “alien enemy.”

It went SO BAD for ICE that not only did the judge order release for the people suing, without prompting he restricted the use of the Alien Enemies Act in west Texas.
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Apr 26
NEW: In a SCATHING decision, Judge Briones of the Western District of Texas absolutely SAVAGED the government over this case, tearing to shreds ICE’s hearsay “evidence” that this husband and wife were in Tren de Aragua as “completely and wholly unsubstantiated” — and ordered their immediate release!
April 26, 2025 at 1:25 PM
jenniferleekoh.bsky.social
What an example of the critical importance of due process and the flouting of basic principles of law & evidence in the Alien Enemies Act cases.
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Apr 26
Briones didn’t even get to the question of whether the Alien Enemies Act was involved lawfully — because the government’s evidence was so incredibly weak!

All the government had was hearsay. It had NOTHING ELSE. Briones was not happy.

Full decision here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
At the hearing with Judge Brinkema, as well as the April 23, 2025 Habeas Corpus hearing in this Court, Respondents and the Government based the entirety of their case on multiple levels of hearsay, hidden within declarations of declarants who have no personal knowledge about the facts they are attesting to. These declarants are not the ones who interviewed Petitioner Sanchez Garcia, and they are not the ones who captured her allegedly incriminating statement on March 10, 2025 in Washington, D.C., and are not the ones who collected "intelligence" and generated reports that contain "highly reliable and verified" information. Further, these declarants are not the ones who conducted interviews of law enforcement informants who allegedly identified Petitioner Sanchez Garcia as a member of TdA. What is astonishing is that these declarants cannot even so much as identify what government official did receive the alleged information directly. Respondents ask this Court to accept their claims, going off of nearly nothing, to substantiate their mammoth claims that Petitioner Sanchez Garcia is a "senior member," or perhaps just a "member," or maybe at the least an "affiliate" of TdA. The Court would not accept this evidence even in a case where only nominal damages were at stake, let alone what is at stake here.
April 26, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
atrupar.com
Bondi declares war on the courts: "What has happened to our judiciary is beyond me ... they are deranged ... we are sending a very strong message today ... we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you."
April 25, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
lindsaycnash.bsky.social
In light of last night's SCOTUS decision, reupping our report showing ICE's failure to provide required language access in detention center law libraries in Louisiana, Texas, and other places. (1/2)
cardozo.yu.edu/sites/defaul...
cardozo.yu.edu
April 8, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
60minutes.bsky.social
60 Minutes found no criminal record for 75% of the Venezuelan migrants the U.S. sent to a mega-prison in El Salvador. https://cbsn.ws/4lC4Vp5
April 7, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
normative.bsky.social
It cannot be overstated how insane and dangerous this argument is. They're saying that the government can illegally abduct and imprison people—and even admit that it screwed up!—and then remove the ability of any court to intervene by shipping the victim to a foreign gulag.
jaywillis.net Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · Apr 7
If the Supreme Court decides that the government can "erroneously" disappear you off the street to a foreign torture prison, and that federal courts have no power to do anything about it, that is, in a meaningful way, Pretty Much It www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24...
Respondents emphasize that Abrego Garcia was improperly removed to El Sal- vador because, although he could be removed anywhere else in the world under a 2019 order of removal, that order granted statutory withholding of removal to El Sal- vador alone. But, while the United States concedes that removal to El Salvador was an administrative error, see App., infra, 60a, that does not license district courts to seize control over foreign relations, treat the Executive Branch as a subordinate dip- lomat, and demand that the United States let a member of a foreign terrorist organ- ization into America tonight. For starters, because MS-13 members such as Abrego Garcia have since been designated members of a foreign terrorist organization, they are no longer eligible for withholding of removal under 8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3)(B). Fur- ther, the United States has ensured that aliens removed to CECOT in El Salvador will not be tortured, and it would not have removed any alien to El Salvador for such detention if doing so would violate its obligations under the Convention Against Tor- ture. Moreover, respondents treat the relief here as “routine,” Resp. C.A. Stay Opp. 1, but that relief goes far beyond merely facilitating an alien’s return, which is what courts have ordered in other cases. This order—and its demand to accomplish sensitive foreign negotiations post-haste, and effectuate Abrego Garcia’s return to- night—is unprecedented and indefensible.
April 7, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
nkalamb.bsky.social
This is the text of the email just sent to hundreds of international students telling them that their visas have been revoked due to activism or social media posts.
March 29, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
NEW: The ACLU has filed a sworn declaration from a Venezuelan woman who ICE sought to turn over to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, who declares that "I heard two US government officials talking and they said 'there is an order saying we can’t take off but we already have.'"
Declaration of S.Z.F.R. 1. I am a woman from Venezuela and I am in detention at Webb County Detention Center in Laredo Texas. My initials are S.Z.F.R. 2. On March 9 at 7 a.m. I was in my dorm in El Paso and was told to get my things together and I was being transferred to another facility. There was one other woman and 14 men who were also transferred with me. 3. I was supposed to have a merits hearing for my asylum claims on March 10th. 4. They took me to the airport in El Paso and I was put on a plane. Already on the plane were many Venezuelan men and three other Venezuelan women. We flew to Laredo. 5. When we got to Laredo we met up with another group of Venezuelan men. 6. There were at least 10 Venezuelan women on the plane. We arrived March 9 in Laredo and were taken to Webb County Detention Center. 7. Thursday of last week, March13th, we were told to gather our belongings and we were driven toward the airport for about an hour. We were told we were being deported to Venezuela. We never made it to the airport. We were sent back to Webb and told it was because of a plane malfunction. 8. On Friday again we were told to gather our belongings and put on the bus at Webb and sat on the bus for about 15 minutes and then were taken back to Webb. 9. Saturday morning we were again told to gather our belongings and get on the bus. We went to the airport and 8 women were put on the plane with me. When we got on the plane there were already over 50 men on the plane. I could see other migrants walking to the plane but we took off before any additional people boarded. 11. Within a couple of minutes of take off I heard two US government officials talking and they said “there is an order saying we can’t take off but we already have.” 12. I asked where we were going and we were told that we were going to Venezuela. 13. Several other people on the plane told me they were in immigration proceedings and awaiting court hearings in immigration court. 14. We were not allowed to open our window shades. 15. We landed somewhere for refueling. We were there for many hours. We were arm and leg shackled the whole time. 16. We took off again and landed fairly quickly. I was then told we were in El Salvador. 17. While on the plane the government officials were asking the men to sign a document and they didn’t want to. The government officials were pushing them to sign the documents and threatening them. I heard them discussing the documents and they were about the men admitting they were members of TdA. 18. After we landed but were still on the plane a woman opened the shade. An officer rushed to shut the shade and pushed her down by her shoulders to try and stop her from looking out. The person that pushed her down had HOU-02 on his sleeve. 19. I saw out the window for a minute and I saw men in military uniforms and another plane. I saw men being led off the plane. Since I’ve been back in the U.S. I have seen news coverage and the plane I saw looks like the one I’ve seen on TV with migrants from the U.S. being delivered to El Salvador. 20. All the men got off the plane. The remaining women asked what happens to us? I was told that the President of El Salvador would not accept women. I was also told that we were going back to detention in the U.S. 21. We left in the middle of the night and landed in the early morning in Laredo. The 8 women who were on the plane were all returned back to the U.S. /s/ S.Z.F.R. S.Z.F.R.
March 24, 2025 at 10:33 PM
jenniferleekoh.bsky.social
"Ms. Chung, who majors in English and gender studies, has participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations since last year. Her lawyers say that she did not speak to reporters, negotiate on behalf of student demonstrators, or in any other way take a leadership position.” She posted fliers.
nytimes.com The New York Times @nytimes.com · Mar 24
Breaking News: A Columbia University student, who is being hunted by ICE, sued the Trump administration to prevent her deportation after taking part in campus protests. The 21-year-old is a legal resident who moved to the U.S. with her family from South Korea when she was 7.
Columbia Student Hunted by ICE Sues to Prevent Deportation
Yunseo Chung, a legal permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. since she was 7, participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Immigration agents visited residences looking for her.
www.nytimes.com
March 24, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
maddow.bsky.social
"There was no access to a toilet, so guards told the women – whose accounts in some cases occurred on different days or different buses – to urinate or defecate on the floor... "

www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...
Immigrant women describe 'hell on earth' in ICE detention
No shower for days, cameras trained on the toilet, women crammed into cells 'like sardines,' among the allegations.
www.usatoday.com
March 24, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
l-toczylowski.bsky.social
Some updates on our client:

@immdef.bsky.social went to his imm court hearing Monday and received confirmation from ICE that he has been “removed” to El Salvador. The Judge asked “how has he been removed if there is no removal order?” And the ICE attorney responded that they did not know.
l-toczylowski.bsky.social Lindsay Toczylowski @l-toczylowski.bsky.social · Mar 16
Posting tonight ti shine a light on what the Alien Enemies Act looks like IRL. Our @immdef.bsky.social client fled Venezuela last year & came to US to seek asylum. He has a strong claim. He was detained upon entry because ICE alleged his tattoos are gang related. They are absolutely not. 🧵
March 20, 2025 at 4:26 AM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
paulecohen.bsky.social
Le Monde reporting that a French scientist traveling to Houston to attend a conference was denied entry to US after a search of his phone & computer revealed messages critical of Trump's science cuts, "which [says CPB] conveyed hatred of Trump & could be qualified as terrorism". Computer confiscated
March 19, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
mjsdc.bsky.social
The government's argument about these alleged gang members boils down to: "Our precogs say they're going to commit crimes soon so we have to imprison them before they do." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
While it is true that many of the TdA 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. In fact, based upon their association with TdA, 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.
March 18, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
The men sent to do hard labor in a Salvadoran prison:

- A tattoo artist seeking asylum who entered legally.
- A teen who got a tattoo in Dallas because he thought it looked cool.
- A 26-year-old whose tattoos his wife says are unrelated to a gang.
- A barber whose family says he has no gang ties.
Lindsay Toczylowski @l-toczylowski.bsky.social Posting tonight ti shine a light on what the Alien Enemies Act looks like IRL. Our @immdef.bsky.social client fled Venezuela last year & came to US to seek asylum. He has a strong claim. He was detained upon entry because ICE alleged his tattoos are gang related. They are absolutely not. March 15, 2025 at 11:33 PM Lindsay Toczylowski @l-toczylowski... • 1d Our client worked in the arts in Venezuela. He is LGBTQ. His tattoos are benign. But ICE submitted photos of his tattoos as evidence he is Tren de Aragua. His @ImmDef attorney planned to present evidence he is not. But never got the chance because our client has been disappeared. Solanyer said an ICE officer told her that her brother was detained because of a tattoo that linked him to Tren de Aragua, a violent gang with Venezuelan prison origins that has spread through the Americas. She said the tattoo depicted a rose and that he had gotten it in a tattoo parlor in Dallas. "He thought it looked cool, looked nice, it didn't have any other significance," she said, stressing that he is not a gang member. Caraballo had multiple tattoos including ones of roses, a clock with this daughter's birth time, a lion and a shaving razor, said his wife. "I've never seen him without hair, so I haven't recognized him in the photos," she said. "I just suspect he's there because of the tattoos that he has and right now any Venezuelan man with tattoos is assumed to be a gang member", she added, citing also the fact that he has effectively gone missing. Sanchez said her husband has never been a member of Tren de Aragua. taseenb @taseenb People have started identifying some of the 238 Venezuelan migrants deported to Bukele's torture dungeons by the U.S. fascist regime. The brother of one of them posted that his relative is a barber with no criminal record and no links to any criminal organisations. Anahi انائي @ANAHI1938-1d Sebastián García Casique publicó en Instagram que, es hermano de uno de los 238 venezolanos deportados a El Salvador señalado de pertenecer a la banda Tren de Aragua. "Nunca había estado preso, nunca ha cometido un delito, ni en Venezuela u otro país".
March 18, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Reposted by Jennifer Lee Koh
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Okay, I'm on the public line and going to do another live-skeeting of the hearing for those who can't join (it seems the public line is now full).

Hearing is set to start in moments.
chrisgeidner.bsky.social Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · Mar 17
DENIED. Boasberg says the hearing goes on at 5p as planned.
Date Filed Description & CSV Mar 17, 2025 scheduled. So ORDERED by Chief Judge James E. Boasberg on 3/17/2025. (Icjeb1) Order on Motion for Miscellaneous Relief MINUTE ORDER: The Court ORDERS that Defendants' 24 Motion to Vacate is DENIED. The hearing will proceed as scheduled. So ORDERED by Chief Judge James E. Boasberg on 3/17/2025. (Icjeb1) Order on Motion for Miscellaneous Relief
March 17, 2025 at 8:59 PM