Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Appointed Judge Excoriates Him in Open Court

Episode Date: September 20, 2025

A Trump appointed judge just declared that the Trump Administration itself violated laws against Child Trafficking by trying to secretly remove 600 refugee unaccompanied minors at 1 am Labor Day weekend and send them back on false representations to their home countries. As Michael Popok reports, Judge Kelly called Trump’s argument that they were merely “reunifying” children with their parents in a “pilot program” was a “house of cards” and untrue, which makes Judge Kelly the third judge after Judges Boasberg and Xinis, to call DOJ senior immigration attorney Drew Ensign a liar in open court. Go to https://PrizePicks.com/legalaf and use code legalaf for a first deposit match up to $100! Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the Volvo Fall Experience event, discover exceptional offers and thoughtful design that leaves plenty of room for autumn adventures. And see for yourself how Volvo's legendary safety brings peace of mind to every crisp morning commute. This September, lease a 2026 X-E-90 plug-in hybrid from $599 bi-weekly at 3.99% during the Volvo Fall Experience event. Conditions apply, visit your local Volvo retailer

or go to explorevolvo.com. Reading, playing, learning. Stellist lenses do more than just correct your child's vision. They slow down the progression of myopia. So your child can continue to discover all the world has to offer through their own eyes. Light the path to a brighter future with stellus lenses for myopia control. Learn more at SLOR.com. And ask your family eye care professional for SLOR Stellist lenses at your child's next visit.

In breaking news, a Trump-appointed judge, Judge Kelly, has just found that it's likely that the Trump administration has violated trafficking laws, child trafficking laws, by putting 600 children from Guatemala who were in the refugee resettlement program on planes at 1 o'clock in the morning over Labor Day weekend to try to take them in the middle of the night back to Guatemala in violation of their due process rights. He's found that the Trump administration's arguments led by Drew and. Wenson, who also lied to Judge Bozberg about 200 men being sent to El Salvador, same guy that his arguments that this is nothing more than repatriation, re-unification of families, Judge, falls like a house of cards. It's a quote from Judge Kelly. This matters for due process, and it matters that it's Judge Kelly. I had worried when the case moved from the original emergency judge, Judge Sukhnan,

who had to issue 15 different orders over Labor Day weekend in order to ground the plains to make sure what happened to Judge Bozberg in the District of Columbia where 200 men were sent in the middle of the night already to El Salvador didn't happen to her. And I said, well, that's a good set of orders, 15 orders to make sure those kids got sent back to refugee resettlement housing and in their control while the preliminary injunction issues were resolved. Well, then the case got transferred to Judge Kelly, who is a, I don't want to call a Mac. but he was appointed by and confirmed by Trump in the first term. And I said, I hope the fact that Kelly gets the case doesn't change the facts.

I was wrong. Apologies to Judge Kelly. He did the right thing. Wait till I read you from his memorandum opinion. Michael Popock, you're on Midas Dutch Network and Legal A.F. Okay, let's get to the breaking news. Here's from the memorandum opinion, which I'm going to be posting on LegalAF substack so you can read it yourself.

Again, Judge Kelly, a Trump appointee, his words. Not leftist, not Marxist, not left-wing, not activist judge at all. Just before midnight on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, several executive branch agencies began to implement a plan to expel from the United States certain unaccompanied alien children in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services and send them back to their home country. You're already in trouble. The fact that the refugee resettlement program is under the Department of Health and Human Services,

that's RFK Jr. The O's agencies told the children's caretakers who were hearing about the plan for the first time to have them ready for pickup in as little as two hours. The children were roused from their beds in the middle of the night and driven to an airport

where some were loaded onto planes. Lawyers got wind of the hasty operation while it was unfolding and filed a lawsuit seeking emergency relief that Sunday, Labor Day Sunday, at 1 a.m. The judge on emergency duty, that's Judge Sukhnan, entered a temporary restraining order before the agencies and their officials could remove

or otherwise transport the children from the U.S. At a hearing, counsel for defendants, that's the Trump administration, explained why it was fairly outrageous for the plaintiffs to have sued, that all they wanted to do was reunify the children with their parents in Guatemala. Remember, they're in the refugee program. They were sent by their parents to protect them and to be in a protectorate under the United States, because they don't want them in Guatemala. The judge continues on page one.

But that explanation crumbled like a house of cards about a week later. There is no evidence before the court that the parents of these children sought their return. So Drew Ensign lied. That's another way of saying Drew Ensign, the lawyer for the Department of Justice. Justice, he lied to Judge Bozberg about the planes leaving for El Salvador's Seekot prison, lied to judge both Judge Sukhnan and Judge Kelly. To the contrary, Judge Kelly finds, the Guatemalan Attorney General reports that officials could not even track down parents for most of the children, whom defendants found eligible for their quote-unquote reunification plan, and none of those that were located had asked

for their children to come back to Guatemala. How bad are things in that part of Guatemala that parents are sending their children unaccompanied to the United States to be protected and then get abused by the Trump administration? The judge then talks about the trafficking victims protection reauthorization act of 2008 that's a law against child trafficking it sets up certain conditions for the children to make sure they get due process make sure they go before an administrative law judge make sure that there is a hearing none of that happened the judge noted in this order that that a alleged notice to the lawyers for the children was given it like two o'clock in the morning this is the uh on page seven the judge says

The communication included a notice to attorney of record that the providers were, these are the people that work for the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the providers, were to immediately disseminate to attorneys of record and child advocates, presumably within that two-hour window in the middle of a night on a holiday weekend. Thank God, the lawyers actually found out about it and put together a complaint and a preliminary injunction motion and an emergency motion to get before Judge Sukhnan, the duty judge at 3 a.m. Judge Sukhnan tried to reach somebody in the Department of Justice at 3 a.m.

And she found no one, nobody home. We know that. We know the reason for that. And then on page 10, we get into the part where the judge determined that the Department of Justice, and Drew Ensign in particular, were liars. This episode is brought to you by prize picks. You and I make decisions every day. But on prize picks, being right can get you paid. Don't miss any of the excitement this season on prize picks, where it's

good to be right. I'm so excited to see Sequin Barkley take the field this season. I'm thinking in that first game, he can even have more than one rushing touchdown. Prize picks is simple to play. Just pick more or less on two to six player stat projections. If you get your picks right, you can cash in. Prize picks is also the best way to get action on sports in more than 40 plus states, including California, Texas, and Georgia. Prize picks invented the flex play, which means you can still cash out if your lineup isn't perfect. You can double your money even if one of your picks doesn't hit. Prize picks is the best way to win cash this football season.

Which players are going off? Which ones aren't? Make your picks in less than 60 seconds and turn your takes into cash all season long on prize picks. Prize picks is the best place to win cash while watching sports. Join millions of users and sign up today. Download the app today and use code legal AF to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.

That's code legal AF to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks, it's good to be right. There's a description of why things are so bad in Guatemala, violent drug dealers, murder and the family, people that were committing suicide, good reasons to take your children if you can

and get them out of harm's way. Page 10, over to 11 of the order. Shortly before the hearing on the preliminary injunction and class certification motions, a recent report from the Guatemalan Attorney General came to light that undermines defendants' claims about parental reunification. That was a ruse.

That was a lie. The office tried to identify and locate family resources for the 609 adolescents, but could not find, they could only find phone numbers for 204, and then after conducting home visits, the office called them and discovered that the families were surprised

and some even annoyed by the outreach because many did not expect their children to be returned to Guatemala. Well, there goes Drew Ensign's reunification test pilot program. The parents of one child explained why. Their daughter had received death threats and therefore could not live in Guatemala

so they would do everything possible to get her out of the country again if the United States sent her back. He then went through the standards and then he eventually issued his order. What's the takeaway from all of this? Drew Ensign's in trouble. I've said it before. I've been talking about Drew Ensign now for six or seven

months. He lied to Judge Bozberg. He lied to Judge Zinnis, and he lied to Judge Sucnan, and now to Judge Kelly. He goes in there with a, they weren't just putting families together. Why are we being sued? All these Guatemalan parents want them back. That was a bald-faced lie. The judge is being nice by saying it was a house of cards. We have another word for that, Judge. It's called perjury. It's called lying under oath. It's called violating your duties as a law. lawyer. All they've been doing about these 600 children is trying to, in the middle of the night, illegally unconstitutionally, get them out of the country. We just had a case in which Judge Chutkin, she's the one that presided over Donald Trump's, in a criminal interference case, election

interference case. She just had a rule that her hands were tied about 17 or 18 people that had already been sent out of the country because she had no jurisdiction. That is the goal of the Trump administration to whisk these people away from due process, away from federal court oversight, and put them in third countries where they can't be reached. Judge Kelly, because of Judge Sukhnan's emergency powers, was able to have jurisdiction to make the ruling. If these kids who had left already, he'd be divested of his jurisdiction. It wouldn't be able to make the ruling. That's with the Trump administration. That's the game that they're playing. There's a new, we have our hands on a new memo in which just hours, let me see if I can find it, just hours after Judge

Sukhnan grounded the planes and ordered those children in 15 separate orders to be returned to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, some acting director issued a pissy memo to the providers that handle these children, that house these children, to warn them about not following the directions of the Office of Resettlement. In other words, disregard what Judge Sukhnan or a federal judge says, you better follow what we say. So we have a memo from Angie Salazar, acting director, Office of Refugee Resettlement on the night of Labor Day weekend,

August 31st, several hours after Judge Suknana already grounded those planes, in which she says, when ORR makes a decision regarding the care and custody of a child consistent within and in furtherance of its statutory legal obligations, your refusal to comply can materially interfere with its ability to effectively complete its statutory mission. Negligent or intentional failure to comply with lawful requests from ORR, notice no mention of federal judges regarding the care of the children in your facility will result in prompt legal action, and maybe criminal action, I refer you to the above-reference laws

and the unaccompanied Alien Children Bureau Policy Guide. What happened with the providers? Is this Ms. Salazar telling the providers to violate federal judge's orders? I'll post this in LegalAF Substack for your review as well. So the takeaway is a Trump-appointed judge sought through the lies that were provided by the Department of Justice to him. and supported all of the findings of Judge Sukhnan, who was the Biden-appointed judge who handled the emergency application.

These 600 children are not going anywhere. They're going to be given their due process rights. It's going to be determined whether they stay in this country. It's going to be determined whether they have refugee status and whether there's any grounds to remove them from that refugee status. And if not, they're staying in America because Judge Kelly says so. I'm Michael Popock. You're on the Midas Dutch Network and on Legal A.F.

Take a minute, subscribe to LegalAF, the YouTube channel as we continue to build our audience there. And LegalAF substack, where I'm posting for members all of these filings like Judge Kelly's order and the children and families, a memo, which looks like it's violating federal judge's orders. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popok. Can't get your fill of LegalAF. Me neither. That's why we form the LegalAF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack you'll find the court filing in the oral argument there including a daily roundup that i do call wait for it morning a f what else all the other contributors from legal a off are there as well we got some new reporting we got interviews we got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where legal a f on substack come over now to free subscribe