It Will Go Down in History as 'Judge Biery's Fiery Speech'

Let’s piece this together the best we can, trying to get as much of U.S. District Judge Fred Biery’s fiery “speech” before you as possible. Maybe someday the “speech” will be found in American history textbooks across the land — you know, kind of like the Gettysburg Address.

It wasn’t really a “speech,” at least not like we think of where a dignitary gets up in front of an audience and pontificates in oratorical tones. No, Judge Biery’s words simply came as he ordered the Trump administration to release 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, from an immigration detention center in Texas.

You will recall how agents kidnapped . . . Okay, “kidnapped” might be too strong of a word. Let’s just say you recall how agents stole . . . Okay, “stole” might be too strong of a word. Or is it? Truth be told, perhaps neither “kidnapped” nor "stole" are too strong.

Let’s just say Liam and his father were apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

Judge Biery looked over the case and started firing. Now, here is where this article/blog swings away from its light‑minded and frivolous tone. Judge Biery had serious words to say.

Judge Biery said, “the case has its genesis in the ill‑conceived and incompetently‑implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”

“Apparent also,” Biery said, “is the government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence.” Biery, suggesting the Trump administration mirrored actions of England’s King George, quoted from the Declaration: “He has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People” and “He has excited domestic Insurrection among us.”

The judge referred to two lines from the Bible: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” and “Jesus wept.”

Judge Biery suggested some officials are driven by a “perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest (that) know no bounds and are bereft of human decency.”

He said the father was asking for “nothing more than some modicum of due process and the rule of law.”

“That pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment,” Biery quipped.

I will wish schoolchildren someday will be taught the words Judge Biery offered. For now, I just wish the parents of our day would listen to them.