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The ACLU on Friday called on multiple courts to temporarily suspend the removal of dozens of detainees accused of being wartime gang members, claiming the Trump administration has been deported by dozens of Venezuelan men on buses at Texas airports.
By Friday night, at least one judge, Washington, D.C., US District Judge James E. Boasberg, denied the request, saying it exceeded his authority. Requests to the US Supreme Court and the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans are pending.
US Department of Justice Attorney Drew C. Ensign told Boasburg that there are no current plans to expel individuals on Friday or Saturday by plane to El Salvador, but the Trump administration reserved the right to exclude people on Saturday.
The ACLU sought an emergency order after Venezuelan detainees from across the country, including California, were transferred to a bluebonnet detention facility in Anson, Texas, and said they would be removed Friday night, according to their filings.
The Trump administration flew hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants who were considered members of Tren de Aragua to El Salvador last month, where they are being held at the infamous mega prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center. Many of the men’s families were sent to El Salvador on previous planes. They say they are not members of the gang.
The deportation launched a high-stakes legal battle that tested the limits of President Trump’s deportation plan and his powers.
The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month determined that wartime authorities summoned by the administration could resume, but immigrants must give appropriate notices and an opportunity to make their case where they are in custody.
Boasberg, who heard of the previous incident regarding the administration’s call to the alien enemy law, had ordered a temporary suspension of removal. However, despite the orders, the deportation plane was sent to El Salvador, where over 200 people remained in prison.
The Trump administration said there is little that can be done to bring them back to the US when individuals are outside our jurisdiction.
“If these people were taken to a foreign prison, they would clearly violate the Supreme Court’s opinion, perhaps for the rest of their lives, without justification, without any legitimate proceedings,” ACLU lawyer Lee Gelerent said Friday.
The lawsuit began in Texas Federal Court earlier in the week when the ACLU asked Judge Wesley Hendrix to temporarily suspend removal on behalf of two individuals.
Hendrix rejected the request. By Friday, the lawyer asked again after learning that more individuals were in custody and reported that rescue was imminent again. When the lawyers were not responded that afternoon, they sought help from the US Court of Appeals in the 5th District and asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
ACLU lawyers argued that the move was necessary as Bluebonnet officials told them they were deported to detainees and asked them to sign a notice of removal of English based on alleged partnerships with Tren de Aragua.
According to a declaration submitted by ACLU attorneys at Michel Blane, executive director of a nonprofit organization that provides services for asylum seekers, one of the facility’s facilities sent his wife a video of Tiktok depicting various detainees. In it, one young man says they are all labelled as members of Tren de Aragua. They are not allowed to call their families and detainees don’t know where they will be taken, he said in the video.
“They say we have to be removed soon because we are a terrorist threat to the country,” he says.
Another detainee says they were given a paper to sign, but they were told they would be taken from the country, whether they signed it or not.
The third detainee said, “We are not members of Tren de Aragua. We are ordinary citizens.” The fourth said, “I have no deportation order. I have all the paperwork organized. I have an American child here. I have brought them here illegally.
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