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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025

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I'm NOT certain if it then follows that they can demand that the U.S. return them back to U.S. soil.

Why not? If they were allowed to be in the US, and the US expels them erroneously, surely it's not fair to them to ask them to front the cost of the trip back, which they wouldn't have needed if not for the government screw-up.

Suppose I'm at a neighbor's house party. The guy gets drunk, mistakes me for a personal enemy of his who snuck in uninvited, punches my lights out, then drives me to the next town over and drops me off at a bus stop before I come to. Once he sobers up and realizes, I think he owes me more than an apology over the phone and invitation to come back over if I want. I think he definitely owes me bus fare at least, and probably some extra compensation for my trouble. I've got no absolute right to be at his house whenever I want, but that's not the point!

surely it's not fair to them to ask them to front the cost of the trip back, which they wouldn't have needed if not for the government screw-up.

I mean, if he can meet the standard for a false arrest case he might have a shot.

But I think the entire point of the case is hinging on whether there was or was not probable cause to detain him.

And its not inherently required to return him to U.S. soil to hold that hearing either.

Like, if you get arrested (they falsely thought that you were a vagrant for sleeping at a bus stop with alcohol on your breath) and taken to jail, then it turns out there was no basis to actually arrest you, you get released. But the cops aren't obligated to drive you home. They might do so by way of apology/to avoid bad press.

Fundamentally I think its FAIR to fly him home. In fact I'd say that's the best way to smooth over the situation to mitigate bad press. But that's only IF there's an actual finding that the detention was unjustified/unlawful and there is in fact no other legal reason to keep him out.

Goes to my other point that every Nation State claims the authority to exclude foreign nationals if the need arises.

Remember Trump's Travel Bans from his first term?

The Supreme Court upheld most of THOSE travel bans when the administration bothered to defend them. This should add on to the point about what 'due process' foreign nationals are entitled to.

In this case, it's not so much "the next town over" as it is "home": the guy in question is a citizen of El Salvador. Although I think there are reasonable asylum claims about how one's own (legal) country will treat them, and maybe even those are sufficiently sympathetic here, but it does complicate the "sent to random country" narrative.

In this case, it's not so much "the next town over" as it is "home"

Okay, so let's say he dumped me back in my home town. But I left all my stuff at his place before he deported me and, since I intended to stay in town for the night, I had dinner reservations in the morning. No matter how you slice it, being unexpectedly moved across borders at short notice is a serious inconvenience at best, and the government ought to make it up to people if it forces it upon them by mistake.

Your analogy misses some key important points (e.g. the neighbor house party should be a strict invite only event, and you only got into it because you literally snuck through the window), but more importantly, the issue is not compensation for plane ticket. I'd be happy to give that guy $1000 for him to fuck off. He can buy plane ticket to US with it, but he will not be admitted into the country, because the US government is under no obligation whatsover to admit any noncitizens into the country.

(e.g. the neighbor house party should be a strict invite only event, and you only got into it because you literally snuck through the window)

This comment-thread is about how to treat non-citizens who were legally on US soil and are then mistakenly deported. Which may or may not describe this particular guy, but we'd moved beyond talking about him in particular.