(CN) - A day after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for President Donald Trump to resume sending Venezuelans accused of gang membership to a prison in El Salvador, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking such removals for immigrants held in the El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas.
According to news reports, many of the Venezuelan immigrants Trump sought to remove under the Alien Enemies Act were brought to the El Valle Detention Center, although it is unclear how many detainees subject to the act are currently held there, and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to an inquiry on the matter.
The order by U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez of the Southern District of Texas on Wednesday prohibits the Trump administration from removing any detainees subject to the act from the facility until Friday, when there will be a hearing to determine if the restraining order should be extended.
Rodriguez found emergency relief is necessary to preserve the status quo and that removal under the Alien Enemies Act would "cause immediate and irreparable injury to the removed individuals."
The order came in a case filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of prospective Alien Enemies Act deportees in the Southern District of Texas. In a statement on Rodriguez's order, the ACLU accused the Trump administration of trying to use the Alien Enemies Act to "bypass immigration law." The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment on the order.
The ACLU has also filed a similar case on behalf of prospective Alien Enemies Act deportees located in the Southern District of New York. In that case, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday blocking the government from deporting such individuals without prior notice and a hearing.
The Alien Enemies Act is a centuries-old law that allows the president to detain or deport non-citizens from enemy nations during times of war or invasion. The act has been invoked only a few times in U.S. history. Prior to this year, it was last used during World War II to intern people of Japanese, German and Italian ancestry.
In March, President Trump issued a proclamation declaring that Venezuelan citizens in the U.S. that the administration declares to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang are subject to removal under the act, arguing that the gang is invading the U.S. as a "hybrid criminal state."
At least 137 Venezuelans have been sent to El Salvador under the proclamation, where the U.S. is paying the government $6 million to hold them in its brutal Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) for one year. The move has been widely condemned by rights groups, and reporting by various news outlets has raised doubts about the validity of evidence used to substantiate the deportees' gang membership.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court revoked a federal judge's nationwide temporary restraining order blocking further Alien Enemies Act removals on procedural grounds. Although the court affirmed that individuals subject to removal under the act are entitled to due process, the majority ruled that the proper mechanism for challenging such removals is habeas cases filed in the district where the prospective deportee is being held. Following this, the ACLU quickly filed class action habeas petitions on behalf of prospective Alien Enemies Act deportees in the Southern District of New York and the Southern District of Texas.
Source: Courthouse News Service
