For now, the Supreme Court on Saturday blocked the deportation of Venezuelans in northern Texas under 18th century wartime law.
In a simple order, the court directed the Trump administration not to exclude Venezuelans held in bluebonnet detention centers “until further orders of this court.”
Justice Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito opposed.
The High Court acted on an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union, which alleged that immigration authorities appear to be moving to resume removal under the Alien Enemy Act of 1798. The Supreme Court said those about to be expelled will have the opportunity to argue the case in court and can contest “a reasonable time” at “a reasonable time.”
“We are deeply reassuring that the court temporarily blocked the removal. These individuals were in the pressing danger of spending the rest of their lives in a brutal Salvador prison without a legitimate process.”
On Friday, two federal judges refused to intervene as the male lawyer launched a desperate legal campaign to prevent deportation. Earlier on Saturday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also refused to issue an order to prevent detainees from being deported.
The administration is expected to return quickly to the Supreme Court to persuade the judiciary to lift the temporary order.
The ACLU has already sought to stop the deportation of two Venezuelans held at the Bluebonnet facility, and has sought an order banning the withdrawal of local immigrants under the alien enemy law.
In an emergency filing earlier on Friday, the ACLU warned that immigration authorities accused other Venezuelan men there of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
The law was only called three times in US history before, but most recently held Japanese-American civilians at detention camps during World War II. The Trump administration argued that it gave them the power to expel immigrants they identified as gang members, regardless of their status.
Following the unanimous April 9th high court order, federal judges in Colorado, New York and southern Texas have immediately issued an order banning the removal of detainees under the AEA until the administration provided a process for making claims in court.
However, in the Texas region, there was no such order covering Bluebonnet, located 24 miles north of Abilene, on the northern tip of the state.
Trump’s appointee, US District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, refused to ban the administration from excluding the two men identified in the ACLU lawsuit this week as immigrants and customs enforcement agencies filed a declaration of oath that they would not be deported immediately. He also prevented the issuance of a broader order banning the removal of all Venezuelans in the area under the law as he said the removal had not yet begun.
However, the ACLU’s Friday application included a declaration of oath from three separate immigration attorneys who said Bluebonnet’s clients were members of Tren de Aragua and were given documents indicating that they could be deported by Saturday. In one case, immigration attorney Karen Brown said the client identified in the initials was told to sign the documents in English, even if the client only spoke Spanish.
“ICE told FGM that these papers came from the president and that they would be deported if he didn’t sign them,” Brown wrote.
Gelernt said Friday evening before District Judge James E. Boasberg of Washington, DC, that the administration first moved Venezuelans to repatriate to immigration facilities in South Texas. However, the judge banned deportation in the area, so he concentrated them on bluebonnet facilities where such orders were not present. He said the witness reported that he was on a bus to be taken to the airport on Friday night.
As Hendrix has not agreed to the ACLU emergency order request, the group turned to Boasberg, which first halted its deportation in March. The Supreme Court ruled that the order to deportation could only come from judges in the jurisdiction in which immigrants were detained, but Boasberg said he made him on a helpless Friday.
“I’m sympathetic to everything you’re saying,” Boasberg told Gellerton. “I just don’t think I have the power to do anything about it.”
This week, Boasberg discovered that there is a likely cause for the Trump administration to commit criminal contenses by failing to comply with his first deportation ban. He was concerned that the paper that the ice had given people held did not reveal that they had the right to challenge the removal in court.
Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign said those planning to deport the country would be a 24-hour “lowest” twenty-four hours to challenge the removal in court. He said no flights were scheduled for Friday night and he was unaware of it on Saturday, but the Department of Homeland Security reserved the right to exclude people at the time.
ICE said it would not comment on the lawsuit.
Also on Friday, a Massachusetts judge was given the opportunity to permanently ban the administration deporting immigrants who appealed to countries other than their home countries, unless they were notified of their destination, and to oppose whether they would face torture or death there.
Some Venezuelans subject to Trump’s alien enemy law have been sent to El Salvador and held in a major infamous prison.
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