Months before Donald Trump was elected president, he attacked a federal judge assigned a case involving the defunct Trump University, accusing him of being biased because of his Mexican heritage. The unusually personal, racially tinged remarks against U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel alarmed legal experts and spurred fierce criticism from the Republican Party, including House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Now, the Trump administration must coincidentally face that same judge in a lawsuit in California filed on behalf of Juan Manuel Montes Bojorquez, who immigration advocates say is one of the first “dreamers” to be deported under President Trump.
Attorneys on behalf of Montes, who was brought to the U.S. as a child, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday demanding that the federal government turn over all information about the 23-year-old’s case. They assert the California resident was deported in February despite his status as a “dreamer” — a beneficiary of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The Department of Homeland Security disputes their claim.
Despite conflicting accounts, the allegations heightened existing concerns that DACA recipients are now being targeted for deportation, notwithstanding Trump’s pledges to “show great heart” toward them. Montes’ lawsuit could help define Trump’s approach to the DACA program, which has granted permits to more than 770,000 people since 2012.
Tuesday’s lawsuit came less than a month after Curiel approved a $25 million settlement in a case alleging the defunct Trump University misled customers and committed fraud. Trump frequently assailed the judge, and in one interview said his Mexican heritage presented a “absolute conflict” in his fitness to hear the lawsuit because of Trump’s tough stance on immigration and his promises to build a border wall.
Legal experts say the attacks against Curiel, an Obama appointee who was a former U.S. attorney, should not affect his fitness to hear the lawsuit, a case that was randomly assigned to the judge.