The ACLU on Friday sought emergency action from the U.S. Supreme Court to protect Venezuelan men in immigration custody at risk of swiftly being deported under President Donald Trump's proclamation invoking an 18th-century wartime law.
The high court should "preserve the status quo for individuals challenging their removal under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas," according to the legal group. "Members of the proposed class are in imminent and ongoing jeopardy of being removed from the United States without notice or an opportunity to be heard, in direct contravention of this court's order," which came after Trump used the 1798 law to send Venezuelans to a mega-prison in El Salvador last month.
The administration sent two planeloads of alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to the Salvadoran Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), despite Washington, D.C.-based District Court Judge James Boasberg blocking deportations under the AEA. The Supreme Court lifted that block earlier this month, but also said people targeted for deportation should first receive notices—though no timeline was mandated—and be able to challenge their removal in court.
The ACLU's Friday filing followed Venezuelan migrants at Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas receiving removal notices. The petition—which goes to Justice Samuel Alito—states that "many individuals have already been loaded on to buses, presumably headed to the airport," and cites reporting that the administration was preparing for an imminent military deportation flight.
"Because of this ongoing and imminent risk of removal to a prison in El Salvador, applicants are simultaneously seeking relief through a renewed application for a temporary restraining order in the district court in the District of Columbia and an application for a stay of removal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit," the filing noted.
Boasberg, the district court judge, called an emergency hearing on Friday evening. Politico's Josh Gerstein reported that U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney Drew Ensign told him that there would be no AEA deportation flights on Friday night, and people he spoke with were not aware of any scheduled for Saturday.
According to Camilo Montoya-Galvez at CBS News, Boasberg also took issue with the notice that immigration officials gave to the targeted migrants, a photo of which the reporter shared on social media.
Montoya-Galvez later reported that after a recess, the DOJ lawyer clarified to Boasberg that while he has been informed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that there are no plans for AEA deportations on Saturday, they "reserve the right to remove people tomorrow."
Earlier this week, Boasberg concluded that the Trump administration's decisions related to migrants sent to CECOT in March "demonstrate a willful disregard for [his] order, sufficient for the court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt."
On Friday evening, a panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. issued an administrative stay, halting the district court judge's plan for contempt proceedings.
