A federal judge in Guam has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to punish an immigration lawyer it accused of filing meritless litigation that briefly delayed a Laotian immigrant’s deportation from the U.S. to Laos.
The Justice Department contended that California attorney Joshua Schroeder made “knowing or reckless misrepresentations” and presented “frivolous arguments” to three different federal courts in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to prevent the deportation of his client, Vang Lor, who pleaded guilty to attempted murder in California in 1998 and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
The legal maneuvering resulted in immigration officials removing Lor from a plane in Guam as he was en route to Laos. He spent about two weeks in jail there, until the courts cleared the way for his deportation and new flights were arranged.
But in a ruling Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood rebuffed the Justice Department’s request to punish Schroeder by imposing a “substantial” monetary penalty and through other steps. DOJ billed its attempt to impose sanctions on Schroeder as a response to an executive order President Donald Trump issued last year targeting “attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States.”
The judge said Schroeder’s contentions did not carry the day, but were not so outlandish as to merit sanctions.
“His legal argument failed, but he made a good faith argument of what he contends the law should be, and this is not a sanctionable offense,” wrote Tydingco-Gatewood, an appointee of President George W. Bush. “The court does not find Mr. Schroeder’s arguments to be completely baseless or that he did not conduct a competent inquiry. Counsel relied on circumstantial evidence and his own professional experience to argue zealously on behalf of his client because he hoped to preserve his client’s right to due process of the law.”
The judge also said Schroeder had some basis for his suspicion that authorities were not sending Lor to Laos, since the country historically resisted taking deportees from the U.S.
Starting last May, Schroeder filed a pair of lawsuits to block Lor’s deportation, warning that his client might be unlawfully deported under the Alien Enemies Act, a two-century-old law the Trump administration used to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador. But Tydingco-Gatewood ultimately ruled she didn’t have jurisdiction to intervene because Lor was being deported under a different law.
DOJ spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment.
Schroeder welcomed the decision.
"Today, the District Court of Guam acknowledged that I succeeded in my duty to vigorously fight for my clients,” Schroeder said in a statement. “I am relieved that Chief Judge Tydingco-Gatewood's order clearly states that my arguments were not meritless and were made in good faith. It is every lawyer's ethical responsibility to fight vigorously for their clients even when the case is difficult and relief seems unlikely."
Just last week, DOJ filed a motion with the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking sanctions in connection with an unsuccessful appeal Schroeder filed there on behalf of Lor. DOJ lawyers are asking the appeals court to order Schroeder to pay almost $6,000 to cover the cost of time a government attorney spent on the appeal.
While the initial motion against Schroeder was the first widely publicized instance of the Justice Department citing Trump’s executive order while seeking disciplinary sanctions, Trump has accused a variety of law firms and attorneys of acting unethically and sought to punish them by stripping them of business with the federal government, denying them access to federal buildings including courthouse and revoking security clearances.
Some of the firms reached controversial deals with the administration. Four major law firms sued and won court orders nullifying most of Trump’s directives against them. The Justice Department is appealing those decisions.
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