The Metro: Former US Attorney Barb McQuade on Trump’s defiance of court orders

McQuade returned to The Metro to discuss this defiance to court orders by the Trump administration.

Former U.S. Attorney General for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade at WDET Studios.

Former U.S. Attorney General for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade at WDET Studios.

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Last month, the U.S. government deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador who has lived in Maryland for the past 15 years — ignoring a federal court order forbidding his removal. 

Garcia, who was detained for alleged association with the MS-13 gang, is now being detained at the Center for Terrorism Confinement in El Salvador. And the Trump administration insists it’s not required to engage El Salvador’s government to bring him back. 

Trump’s defiance of court orders at the national level, is also having a local impact. 

In February, the Trump administration eliminated a legal aid program serving about 26,000 migrant children. The legal aid program was stopped in defiance of a federal judge’s orders. Already, the move has led to the Michigan Immigration Rights Center laying off half of its staff.

University of Michigan law professor, legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Barbara McQuade, returned to The Metro to discuss this defiance to court orders by the Trump administration.

Editor’s note: The Metro reached out to Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall and Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt. We have yet to hear back from them. 

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Wednesday, April 16:

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Authors

  • Sam Corey is a producer for 101.9 WDET, which includes finding and preparing interesting stories for the daily news, arts and culture program, The Metro. Sam joined WDET after a year and a half at The Union, a small newspaper in California, and stints at a variety of local Michigan outlets, including WUOM and the Metro Times. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.
  • Robyn Vincent
    Robyn Vincent is the co-host of The Metro on WDET. She is an award-winning journalist, a lifelong listener of WDET, and a graduate of Wayne State University, where she studied journalism. Before returning home to Detroit, she was a reporter, producer, editor, and executive producer for NPR stations in the Mountain West, including her favorite Western station, KUNC. She received a national fellowship from Investigative Reporters and Editors for her investigative work that probed the unchecked power of sheriffs in Colorado. She was also the editor-in-chief of an alternative weekly newspaper in Wyoming, leading the paper to win its first national award for a series she directed tracing one reporter’s experience living and working with Syrian refugees.
  • The Metro