In their broadest assault yet against the charges, lawyers for the defendants pointed to the unusual investigative tactics the administration deployed to make the case against them.
Demonstrators disrupted a church service at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., in January to protest the dual roles of one of its pastors, who also serves as an acting field director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ten deportees said they experienced or witnessed what they called abusive or violent treatment by ICE. They spent months in detention, they said, before being sent to nations where they had no ties.
The Trump administration has deported thousands of immigrants to countries where they have no ties. Dozens were on the latest flight, to the Central African Republic.
Joshua Aviles, a Navy sailor, said his father had been freed days after he was detained as Mr. Aviles returned from a lengthy deployment in the Middle East.
The Trump administration has called for an overhaul of the H-1B visa program, saying it has unfairly allowed companies to sideline Americans and hire foreign workers at lower pay.
Travelers arriving from international flights outside the U.S. Customs and Border Protection exit at Kennedy International Airport in New York last year.
At least five of the people flown to Liberia under the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program resisted leaving the plane. They were then flown to Equatorial Guinea.
Immigrants have long eased labor shortages on farms and factories in Italy. But churches also need foreign-born priests, like the Rev. Vincent Souly of the Ivory Coast.
Connexion
