Civil liberties groups filed a new lawsuit Tuesday to challenge the Trump administration’s use of the 1798 law known as the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang, the day after the Supreme Court clarified how migrants can bring those legal challenges.
The American Civil Liberties Union and others asked a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to halt the removal of two migrants in detention in the area and stop President Donald Trump’s effort to use the old national security law against others in their situation.
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to move forward on enforcing a presidential proclamation to remove members of Tren de Aragua, but said the government must give them a chance to challenge their detention in the court with jurisdiction over where they are being held.
That decision all but shut down the ACLU’s lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and shifted the legal action based on the two individuals who are in custody but deny being members of Tren de Aragua.
Those migrants are among others who are “are now all at imminent risk of removal” in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, the lawsuit states.
One is identified as a 21-year-old Venezuelan national detained at the Orange County Correctional Facility in New York. The individual fled Venezuela with his family over the threats they faced from Tren de Arauga, the lawsuit states, in part because of his sexual orientation and now fears persecution from Venezuelan state actors, including police and paramilitary groups, if returned to his home country.
Another is identified as a 32-year-old Venezuelan national also detained at the Orange County Correctional Facility in New York. The individual protested the regime of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro and fled to the United States because he “feared torture, imprisonment, and death on account of his political activism.”
Ultimately, the ACLU states the stories of individuals like those identified in the lawsuit demonstrate the need to make “all noncitizens in immigration custody” faced with removal under the Alien Enemies Act — as well as future noncitizens — a protected class as litigation moves forward.
“Thousands from Venezuela will potentially be subjected to summary removal under the Proclamation and its implementation by Respondents,” the lawsuit states.
The ACLU is essentially having to start anew with the process for its legal challenge to Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, which he has used to send at least 137 noncitizens to a prison in El Salvador with documented human rights abuses.
A Justice Department spokesman said the department “has vigorously defended President Trump’s policies and will continue to do so whenever challenged in federal court by rogue judges who think they can control the President’s foreign policy and national security agenda. The Supreme Court’s recent decisions have validated the DOJ’s ongoing arguments to this end in court.”
The judge in the original lawsuit in D.C. canceled a hearing scheduled for Tuesday on whether he should make more permanent an order that temporarily blocked the government from implementing removals under the proclamation without giving migrants a chance to challenge it.
Instead, the judge asked the civil rights groups to submit new legal briefs on why the case should continue under his jurisdiction.
Lawmakers speak out
Meanwhile, Democratic Reps. Delia Ramirez of Illinois and Nydia M. Velázquez of New York, both members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, held a news conference Tuesday on Capitol Hill to bring attention to the El Salvador prison where Trump has sent and continues to send migrants accused of being members of an international gang.
Signs held up by aides had images with news headlines on the removals and images of detainees, including a picture of prisoners whose heads were shaved being led in a line by guards.
Ramirez, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was glorifying the suffering of individuals sent to the El Salvador prison, such as by appearing in a video on social media of her at the facility, and must step down.
“You certainly must return these people back to where they belong, back home here, but you can’t take away the trauma and impact that has already been incurred, and it is why today I courageously stand before the halls of Congress, in front of the United States Capitol, calling for Secretary Noem to resign immediately,” Ramirez said.
Velázquez said she and Ramirez sent a letter on Tuesday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to answer questions about the transference of migrants to the prison in El Salvador.
Velázquez predicted the removals to the El Salvador prison “won’t stop with immigrants,” pointing to comments Trump made to reporters on Sunday when he said he was “all for” sending American criminals to the facility.
“Secretary Kristi Noem must come before Congress,” Velázquez said. “She must answer [what we’re seeing] on her watch and explain why her agency is treating due process like an inconvenience. The American people deserve answers, and we will not stop until we get them.”
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