Lawyers for a group of Venezuelan migrants that the Trump administration has accused of being gang members asked the Supreme Court Friday to block what they believe to be an imminent new wave of deportations.
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. Some are already being held at Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas and fear deportation, the attorneys said in a Texas district court.
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 filed a photo of a notice that some of the migrants had received, showing that the government has determined they were 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.”
The Texas court later rejected the ACLU lawyer’s request, in part citing the tight deadline. The lawyers had noted that if the judge didn’t grant a temporary restraining order or agree to hold a status conference before 1.30 p.m. — about 45 minutes after they filed their emergency petition — they would seek relief from an appeals court. The attorneys then filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
The Supreme Court ruled this month that the Trump administration has the authority to deport migrants under the Aliens Enemies Act. But it also ordered that the government must provide detainees an opportunity to contest their removals in court districts nearest to the detention centers where they are being held.
The ACLU argued that immigrants are being picked up and moved to various locations so quickly that it’s difficult to arrange representation before they’re sent out of the country.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security refused to comment on the ACLU’s claims in its filings. “We are not going to reveal the details of counter terrorism operations, but we are complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling,” Tricia McLaughlin told The Post in a statement.
When asked about the planned deportations, President Donald Trump told reporters Friday: "If they're bad people, I would certainly authorize it."
