He has defended the administration’s most controversial court arguments in favor of its mass-deportation agenda. No one is more surprised than his former colleagues.
On March 15, just weeks into his new job as the Department of Justice lawyer in charge of immigration litigation, Drew Ensign was called into an unusual Saturday evening court hearing.
The government was preparing to whisk Venezuelan immigrants out of the country, giving them no opportunity to challenge their deportations, and send them to El Salvador’s brutal prison that its government calls the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. When the hearing began at 5 p.m., Ensign said he did not know if the deportations were underway. U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg took a break so Ensign could find out, but when the hearing resumed, Ensign said he still did not know. “I do not have additional details I can provide at this time,” he said.
The judge ordered the government not to deport the immigrants, telling Ensign, “This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately.”