A federal judge declined to issue an order Friday evening blocking deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, concluding he lacks the authority to issue a nationwide order after the Supreme Court tossed his order earlier this month.
The decision came as a DOJ attorney said Justice Department officials “reserve the right” to resume deportation flights as early as Saturday.
Lawyers with the ACLU had asked U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to issue a temporary order blocking any imminent AEA deportations, saying the Trump administration was actively busing dozens of men to an airport in Texas to be deported.
MORE: Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador despite order barring removal to third countries
Boasberg said he was “sympathetic” to the concern about deportation flights resuming imminently, but he said he lacks the authority to issue a nationwide temporary restraining order barring such deportations.
The Trump administration last month touched off a legal battle when it invoked the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
Judge Boasberg temporarily blocked such deportations under the AEA, before the Supreme Court early this month ruled that the Trump administration could resume them — but said detainees must be given due process to challenge their removal.
The ACLU argued Friday that several Venezuelan migrants who are being held in a detention center in Texas are at risk of deportation and have not had adequate notice or enough time to challenge their removals, violating the court’s requirement that the men have “reasonable time” to practice their due process rights.
While a lawyer for the Department of Justice initially suggested that no deportation flights were scheduled for Friday or Saturday, he backtracked later in Friday’s hearing, keeping the door open for flights to begin as soon as Saturday.
“I’ve spoken with DHS, they are not aware of any current plans for flights tomorrow, but I have also been told to say that they reserve the right to remove people tomorrow,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign said.
“It is very concerning, but at this point I just don’t think I have the ability to grant relief to the plaintiffs,” Judge Boasberg said. “I just don’t really see how you’re asking me to do anything different from what the Supreme Court said I couldn’t do.”
Ensign also acknowledged that noncitizens are “being gathered from around the country” at a detention facility in Texas, though he declined to offer more details, citing “operational reasons.”
The ACLU has also asked a federal appeals court in Texas and the United States Supreme Court to block the deportations.
Earlier Friday, a government official told ABC News that there was planning underway for an imminent U.S. military deportation flight under the AEA.
In a court filing in Texas earlier Friday, ACLU attorneys submitted a document they say is the notice their clients received Friday from immigration officials.
The document, titled “Notice and Warrant of Apprehension and Removal under the Alien Enemies Act,” says, “You have been determined to be … a member of Tren de Aragua.”
“You have been determined to be an Alien enemy subject to apprehension, restraint and removal from the United States,” the notice says. “This is not a removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”
The notice their clients received Friday, according to the ACLU, “does not say that one can contest the designation under the AEA.”
“Plaintiffs re-emphasize that proposed class members are being told that they will be imminently removed under the AEA, as soon as tonight,” attorneys for the ACLU said.
In the emergency motion for an immediate ruling, attorneys for the ACLU cited ABC News’ reporting that there is planning underway for an imminent U.S. military deportation flight under the AEA.
“Officers last night told class members that they will be removed within 24 hours, which expires as early as this afternoon,” the ACLU wrote. “Upon information and belief, individuals have already been loaded on to buses.”
“The government has refused to give any information about these notices and removals to class counsel despite multiple requests,” wrote the ACLU. “Without this Court’s immediate intervention, dozens or hundreds of class members may be removed to CECOT within hours — all without any real opportunity to seek judicial review, in defiance of due process and the Supreme Court’s order.”
In response to the notice, ACLU attorneys in Washington, D.C., on Friday afternoon asked Judge Boasberg, who last month issued the initial order blocking AEA flights, to issue a temporary restraining order requiring “30 days’ notice before removing a class member under the Alien Enemies Act.”
The attorneys for the ACLU said that the district court in the Northern District of Texas, where the Bluebonnet detention center is located, had refused to act on their request to issue a temporary restraining order or hold a status conference.
A federal judge in Texas denied the ACLU’s request for a restraining order Thursday, saying in an order that the ACLU “failed to meet their burden to show a substantial threat of imminent, irreparable injury.”
The judge said that because the government previously stated that authorities would not remove the petitioners during the litigation of the case, the ACLU has “not made a sufficient showing at this stage to convince the Court that the government will violate its representations to that effect.”
After several attorneys submitted declarations saying that several of their clients were informed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers that they were being sent to El Salvador, the ACLU filed a new emergency application for a temporary restraining order.
“In the hours after this Court’s order on the TRO, Attorney Brown’s client, F.G.M., was approached by ICE officers, accused of being a member of Tren de Aragua, and told to sign papers in English,” attorneys for the ACLU said. “ICE told him the papers were ‘coming from the President,’ and that he will be deported even if he did not sign it.”
In one declaration, Michelle Brane, the executive director of the immigration support group “Together and Free,” said an individual detained at Bluebonnet Detention Center in Texas called his sister and informed her that officers told a group of Venezuelans they were being sent to El Salvador.
Brane also linked a TikTok video in her declaration that appears to be of a video call between a family member and a detained individual who showed photos of a notice he received allegedly saying that he is going to be removed.
In the video, the man says in Spanish, “We need help … they’re saying we’re enemies … members of Tren de Aragua. They’re saying we’re going to be removed.”
As administration eyes more AEA deportation flights, judge says he lacks authority to block them originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
The post As administration eyes more AEA deportation flights, judge says he lacks authority to block them appeared first on ABC News.
