The United States Immigration Appeals Circuit Court Rules against Deportations of Two Members of the Venezuelan Band Tren De Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act

The ACLU had already sued to block deportations of two Venezuelans held in the Bluebonnet facility and sought an order barring removals of any immigrants in the region under the Alien Enemies Act.

“We are not going to reveal the details of counter terrorism operations, and we are complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling,” said Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia MacLaughlin.

NPR was unable to independently confirm the number of people who may be deported from this facility. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security declined to provide details or answer additional questions about the case.

The Supreme Court ruled that if people are given due process to challenge their removal, the act can still be used. The government says 137 migrants accused of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua, including a group of men sent to a prison in El Salvador, have already been deported under the Alien Enemies Act.

In the far north of Texas, migrants were being loaded on buses for a trip out of the state, according to Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.

On Friday, two federal judges refused to step in as lawyers for the men launched a desperate legal campaign to prevent their deportation. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has not yet made a decision.

“It doesn’t say you have the right to contest, you have the right to challenge anything. It’s just telling you here’s the notice, you’re getting removed,” Boasberg told Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign. That seems to be problematic to me.

There are no deportation plans on Friday or Saturday, but the government can remove people on Saturday, according to a lawyer for the justice department.

The Immigration Law in the U.S. is in the Infinite Final State: The Supreme Court’s Report to the ACLU

“I’m sympathetic to everything you are saying, I just don’t think I have the power,” judge Boasburg told the ACLU attorney, and said that it is now in the Supreme Court’s hands.

The Supreme Court rule that only judges have jurisdiction to stop the removal of migrants was what led to probable cause that the Trump administration committed criminal contempt.

We are relieved that the removal has been stopped by the court. The people were in danger of spending the rest of their lives in a brutal El Salvadoran prison without having had a proper due process, said Lee Gelernt in an email.

Three times in U.S. history, the act has been used to hold Japanese-Americans in internment camps. The administration said they had the power to remove immigrants who they identified as members of the gang regardless of their immigration status.

There was no such order out of Texas that covers the area of Bluebonnet, which is located in the far north of the state.

But the ACLU’s Friday filing included sworn declarations from three separate immigration lawyers who said their clients in Bluebonnet were given paperwork indicating they were members of Tren de Aragua and could be deported by Saturday. In one case, immigration lawyer Karene Brown said her client, identified by initials, was told to sign papers in English even though the client only spoke Spanish.

A Massachusetts judge banned the deportation of immigrants who had exhausted their appeals in other countries unless they were given a chance to object to being tortured or killed there.