US planes carrying Venezuelan migrants arrives at El Salvador. Photo: El Salvador Presidential Office/file photo.
The US Supreme Court temporarily blocked the deportation of Venezuelans who are detained in North Texas under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a controversial 18th-century military law.
In a brief order issued on Saturday, April 19, the US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration not to expel migrants held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center “until further order of this court.”
The ruling comes just hours after a federal appeals court similarly blocked the US government from moving forward with eliminating temporary legal protection, better known as TPS, for some 350,000 Venezuelan migrants, who would be at risk of imminent deportation.
The judges acted in response to an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which alleged that immigration authorities appeared to be seeking to restart deportations under the archaic legislation.
The Supreme Court said in early April that such proceedings could only be pursued if those facing deportation were given the opportunity to present their arguments to the court and were given “a reasonable amount of time” to challenge their pending deportations.
“We are deeply relieved that the Court has temporarily blocked the deportations. These individuals were in imminent danger of spending the rest of their lives in a brutal Salvadoran prison without ever having had due process,” said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt.
The Trump regime is expected to quickly return to the Supreme Court in an effort to persuade the justices to lift their temporary order.
The group had previously filed a lawsuit to block the deportations of two Venezuelans detained at the Bluebonnet facility in Texas and had requested an order prohibiting the removal of any immigrants from the region under the Alien Enemies Act.
In an emergency filing Friday morning, the ACLU warned that immigration authorities were accusing other Venezuelan men detained there of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which would make them subject to President Trump’s use of the law.
It should be noted that this regulation has only been invoked three times in US history, most recently during World War II to intern Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The Trump administration argued that it gave them the power to quickly deport immigrants they identified as gang members, regardless of their immigration status.
Following the Supreme Court’s unanimous April 9 order, federal judges in Colorado, New York, and South Texas quickly issued orders barring the deportation of detainees until the government provides a process for them to defend themselves in court.
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US District Judge James Wesley Hendrix refused to block the government from deporting the two men identified in the ACLU lawsuit, because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) submitted affidavits stating that they would not be immediately deported.
According to a senior Trump administration official who spoke to CBS News, of the 261 Venezuelans deported as of April 8 to CECOT, the maximum-security prison in El Salvador, 137 were expelled under the Alien Enemies Act.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/DZ
