The ACLU’s case against deportation of two Venezuelans in the Bluebonnet facility 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 McLaughlin.
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.
In an emergency filing early Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union warned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was accusing other Venezuela men held there of being members of a gang that would make them subject to Trump’s use of the act.
According to a Friday evening hearing in Washington DC, Gelernt stated that the administration moved Venezuela’s citizens to an immigration facility in south Texas for deportation. The deportations were diverted to the Bluebonnet facility, where no such order exists, because of a judge banning them in that area. He said witnesses reported the men were being loaded on buses Friday evening to be taken to the airport.
The group turned to the person who put a halt to deportations in March, because Hendrix didn’t agree to the request for an emergency order. The Supreme Court ruled the orders against deportation could only come from judges in jurisdictions where immigrants were held, which Boasberg said made him powerless Friday.
It doesn’t mean you have the right to contest and it does not mean you can challenge anything. It’s just telling you here’s the notice, you’re getting removed,” Boasberg told Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign. That seems problematic to me.
The government reserves the right to remove people from the country on Saturday, according to a justice department lawyer at the emergency hearing on Friday.
The AEA and the Abilene gang: Permanent bans on deporting scalars from the U.S. Supreme Court
“I’m sympathetic to everything you are saying, I just don’t think I have the power to give you a decision, it’s up to the Supreme Court,” judge Boasburg told the lawyer for the ACLU.
There’s a strong likelihood that the Trump administration committed criminal contempt by disobeying his initial deportation ban. He was worried that the paper ICE was giving those held didn’t clearly show they had a right to challenge their removal in court.
In the wake of the high court’s unanimous judgement, judges in Colorado, New York and Texas immediately forbade the AEA from being used for the removal of prisoners until a process is put in place to make claims.
The act has only been invoked three previous times in U.S. history, most recently during World War II to hold Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The immigration status of immigrants who are identified as members of the gang was a basis on which the Trump administration claimed it had the power to quickly remove them.
But there had been no such order issued in the area of Texas that covers Bluebonnet, which is located 24 miles north of Abilene in the far northern end of the state.
Three immigration lawyers for Bluebonnet have made sworn statements indicating their clients could be deported by Saturday if they don’t comply with the paperwork. 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.
Also Friday, a Massachusetts judge made permanent his temporary ban on the administration deporting immigrants who have exhausted their appeals to countries other than their home countries unless they are informed of their destination and given a chance to object if they’d face torture or death there.