Federal judge slams Trump's deportation of father of three as 'inhumane'

Judge says the court cannot delay the man's deportation, but that it is not 'compelled to find the government's action in this case fair or just'

The rise in deportations has sparked protests across the US (Getty)

The Trump administration’s decision to deport a coffee farmer in Hawaii is “inhumane”, a federal appeals court judge has said.

Magana Ortiz, 43, who came to the US illegally 28 years ago, became a coffee farmer in Hawaii's Kona region. His wife and his three children – ages 12, 14 and 20 – are all US citizens.

Mr Ortiz was working to obtain legal status when he was ordered under Donald Trump’s new border security rules to be deported back to Mexico.

“President Trump has claimed that his immigration policies would target the ‘bad hombres’”, said Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. “The government’s decision to remove Magana Ortiz shows that even the ‘good hombres’ are not safe.”

Judge Reinhardt, who was appointed by Democratic president Jimmy Carter, made his comments as the appeals court turned down Mr Ortiz’s emergency appeal to delay his deportation.

The judge said the court did not have have the authority to grant Mr Ortiz’s request. “We are not, however, compelled to find the government's action in this case fair or just,” he said.

Judge Reinhardt traced the deportation to a series of executive orders that Mr Trump signed about a week after he was inaugurated as president in January. The orders dismantled a system of priorities that had previously guided immigration agents in deciding whom to deport, the judge said.

“The orders also gave far greater authority to individual agents and officers, who are now removing non-citizens simply because they are here illegally, regardless of whether they have committed any offence,” the judge continued. “In light of the breadth of these orders and the lack of any apparent limit on agents’ discretion, the undocumented must now choose between going to work, school, hospitals, and even court, and the risk of being seized.”

By law, Mr Ortiz will not be allowed to return to the US for 10 years after he is deported. He is currently paying for his eldest daughter’s education at the University of Hawaii.

“The government’s insistence on expelling a good man from the country in which he has lived for the past 28 years deprives his children of their right to be with their father, his wife of her right to be with her husband, and our country of a productive and responsible member of our community,” Judge Reinhardt said.

“We are unable to prevent Magana Ortiz’s removal, yet it is contrary to the values of this nation and its legal system,” he added.