Judge rebukes Trump but Big Isle coffee farmer’s deportation stands

The plight of a Hawaii island coffee farmer facing deportation came under the national spotlight Tuesday as a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge took a broad swipe at the Trump administration and its immigration policies.

In reluctantly denying an emergency appeal to overturn an expulsion order, Judge Stephen Reinhardt called Andres Magana Ortiz a man of good moral character who is being treated unfairly, contrary to the nation’s values.

“President Trump has claimed that his immigration policies would target the ‘bad hombres,’” Reinhardt wrote in an opinion. “The government’s decision to remove Magana Ortiz shows that even the ‘good hombres’ are not safe.”

Reinhardt, who was nominated to the court by President Jimmy Carter, added that the court has no authority to grant a stay of removal.

“We are not, however, compelled to find the government’s action in this case fair or just,” he said.

While Magana Ortiz’s attorney, James Stanton of Honolulu, did not return phone calls requesting comment, the judge laid out much of the coffee farmer’s story in his decision, which was picked up by the national media.

Reinhardt wrote that Magana Ortiz, 43, entered the country illegally nearly three decades ago from Mexico before raising a family and becoming a respected businessman within the coffee industry.

Suzanne Shriner, president of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association, confirmed that Magana Ortiz is well respected by her peers. She said he started out as a laborer who picked coffee beans, saved his money and worked his way up to where he now manages multiple coffee farms.

“Coffee farmers would take a strong stand against the harassment of our workers,” Shriner said. “With such a low unemployment rate in the islands and how hard it is to attract workers, people like Andres are vital to the Big Island and our industry.”

Several other Kona coffee farmers declined to comment for this story, with one suggesting that the man’s troubles started under the Barack Obama administration.

In his decision, the judge noted that Magana Ortiz’s children are 12, 14 and 20, born in this country and American citizens, as is his wife. His eldest daughter is a student at the University of Hawaii, the tuition for which he is paying.

According to Reinhardt, Magana Ortiz built a house, started his own company and even allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to use his farm to conduct a five-year study researching pests that attack Hawaii’s coffee crop.

And although he has two convictions for driving under the influence, the latest one was 14 years ago, and he has no other criminal history.

“Indeed, even the government conceded during the immigration proceedings that there was no question as to Magana Ortiz’s good moral character,” Reinhardt wrote.

After Magana Ortiz’s immigration case finished with a decision to remove him due to his 1989 illegal entry into the U.S., he filed for a stay of removal in September 2014. That stay was granted, allowing him to remain with his family and pursue other ways to obtain legal status — efforts that are ongoing, the judge said.

But in March, after Trump signed a series of executive orders changing the system of priorities guiding Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the government reversed its position and ordered him to report for removal in May, Reinhardt said.

After another application for a stay was denied, Magana Ortiz on May 10 filed an emergency request to the District Court. That was denied, and he appealed to the higher court.

Reinhardt said Magana Ortiz faces a 10-year ban against his return, likely forcing him to spend a decade away from his wife, children and community.

The family, the judge said, will face some tough decisions about where to live as the right to occupy their home will end once Magana Ortiz is gone.

“Subjecting vulnerable children to a choice between expulsion to a foreign land or losing the care and support of their father is not how this nation should treat its citizens,” Reinhardt wrote.

“It is difficult to see how the government’s decision to expel him is consistent with the president’s promise of an immigration system with ‘a lot of heart.’ I find no such compassion in the government’s choice to deport Magana Ortiz,” he concluded.