Ahmed Said won’t be heading to Cameroon, at least not immediately. That was the upshot of a more-than-hour-long court hearing held this morning at the federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. Your correspondent was there.
Ahmed Said, a Somali national, was picked up by ICE back in December 2025 on a May 2014 Final order of removal issued by a U.S. Immigration Court.
A habeas corpus petition was filed on his behalf last month, seeking his release from ICE custody, alleging (among other items) paperwork technicalities. At some point, DHS shifted its stance on Said’s deportation, seeking to send him to the west African nation of Cameroon, who has agreed to take him in. Presumably, the nonfunctioning central government of Somali made his deportation to his homeland untenable.
Last Friday (May 22), Said’s lawyers sought and immediately received an emergency temporary restraining order (TRO) from presiding Judge Katherine Menendez, barring Said’s deportation, despite the existence of a new final order of removal, this time destination Cameroon. Today’s hearing (May 29) was to have attorney’s argue for and against the extension of the TRO. In the end, the TRO was extended by Judge Menendez indefinitely.
In other works, the “temporary” restraining order will remain in effect up to, and including, forever. At times, Judge Menendez appeared to admit in court that she lacks the authority to outright overrule decisions made by the Immigration Court. But the judge beleives that she has the power to order additional processes, procedures, and extend deadlines to protect the “rights” of the illegal alien petitioner. She spoke repeatedly of judging the case “on the merits” (using that exact phrase) while implying that such judgement on her part was different in some manner than overruling the other court.
The problem with today’s hearing became clear when it was established that the relief granted by the TRO (overruling Said’s deportation) goes far beyond the relief sought in the original habeas petition. So Said’s lawyers were given ten days to revise their habeas petition, accordingly, and the government has a week beyond that to respond.
Said had been scheduled to depart for Africa on May 26. We learned in court today that he has petitioned the Immigration Court to reopen his case and that he intends to argue that he would be tortured upon arrival by the Cameroon government based on his history of mental illness. This assumption is all based on Said’s “credible fear” of deportation.
You can see the problem from the American government’s viewpoint. No matter how many “final orders” they obtain, the process is never allowed to end. There is always a new argument to be raised, or another procedure to explore. “Final” can never be allowed to translate into action. Under this whack-a-mole approach to justice, you can cross every “T” and dot every “I” but then you are told that you should have crossed the “I”s and dotted the “T”s. You are never told the correct sequence of events, just that whatever you did was incorrect.
Just in case you were wondering, you, an American citizen, do not have any of these “due process” rights of infinite delay.
Rinse and repeat.
