The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelans in Texas under the Alien Enemies Act.
In an early Saturday morning brief order, the justices told the White House it could not remove the Venezuelans from the Bluebonnet Detention Center “until further order of this court.” Hours later, the solicitor general requested that the Supreme Court “dissolve” its administrative stay to allow the lower courts can review the legal arguments and to “leave undisturbed the government’s independent authority to remove putative class members.”
Lawyers for the migrants filed emergency petitions in multiple courts on Friday before filing with the Supreme Court. The lawyers’ request to the nation’s highest court was “fatally premature, because they improperly skipped over the lower courts before asking this one for relief,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in his filing.
“At a minimum, the Court should clarify that its administrative stay order does not preclude the government from removing detainees pursuant to authorities other than the Alien Enemies Act,” he wrote.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the majority opinion.
The Trump administration has accused the group of being gang members and wants to deport them under the 18th-century wartime law.
The high court’s ruling came after lawyers for the migrants asked the Supreme Court on Friday to block what they believe to be an imminent new wave of deportations.
The Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the Trump administration has the authority to deport migrants under the Aliens Enemies Act.
However, it also ordered that the government provide detainees an opportunity to contest their removals in court districts nearest to the detention centers where they are being held.
Dozens of the men have been told that they are going to be removed under the Alien Enemies Act imminently, lawyers with the ACLU wrote in a Friday court filing.
The team of lawyers launched challenges in multiple courts on Friday, underscoring the urgency of the situation.
In a related case in Washington, D.C. concerning the Venezuelan migrants, a Justice Department lawyer said Friday that he had spoken with the Department of Homeland Security. “They are not aware of any current plans for flights tomorrow, but I have also been told to say they reserve the right to remove people tomorrow,” he said.
The migrants “are at imminent risk of summary removal to places, such as El Salvador, where they face life-threatening conditions, persecution, and torture, and may remain for the rest of their lives, incommunicado,” the lawyers wrote in their filing to the Supreme Court.
Not only do the immigrants face “grave harm,” but the government “appears to be carrying out removals without any due process,” they argued.
The ACLU lawyers stated in a filing that the government had given some of the migrants a notice that stated they had been determined to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
These notices were only written in English; some migrants only understand Spanish and refused to sign, the lawyers said. The document shows a red stamp that says “refused to sign” on the signature line.
“There’s no box to check to say I want to contest,” ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said at a Friday evening hearing in federal court in Washington., The Washington Post reported. “There’s nothing that says there is a right to contest, much less the time frame.”
