Politico: ‘This is sending a message’: DOJ moves to sanction lawyer who took pro bono deportation case

Josh Gerstein for Politico  reports that the Justice Department is asking a federal judge to sanction a California lawyer who fought the removal of an immigrant from Laos who had pleaded guilty. 

“Joshua Schroeder, an immigration and intellectual property attorney based in Los Angeles, appears to be the first target of President Donald Trump’s vow to discipline lawyers who hit the federal government with lawsuits that the administration deems frivolous. Legal experts described the sanctions motion against Schroeder . . .  as highly unusual. . . . In emergency court papers seeking to block the deportation, Schroeder cited the administration’s aggressive effort to expel other foreigners under the Alien Enemies Act, and he argued that his own client might be unlawfully ensnared in that effort. [T]he Trump administration is now arguing that he falsely claimed his client was facing deportation under that rarely invoked law — and that he persisted even after government lawyers explained the deportation was based on ordinary immigration law.”

KJ