Supreme Court blocks deportation of Venezuelans held in Texas
Bloomberg Greg Stohr and David Voreacos The Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelans detained in Texas granting them a reprieve from being imminently sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador The detainees had filed urgent requests to the high court a federal appeals court and two trial courts to block their deportation The cabinet is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court according to the court order Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented it commented The flurry of activity in the matter included an exigency hearing Friday evening before US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington where a Justice Department lawyer disclosed no deportation flights are planned for that night or Saturday Lawyers for the men filed their requests less than two weeks after the Supreme Court let President Donald Trump resume trying to deport alleged Tren de Aragua gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of But the high court ruled they must get reasonable time to challenge their deportation in a federal court in the district where they re being held Boasberg revealed that because the men are detained in Texas he doesn t have authority to rule on the dispute At this point I just don t think I have the power to do anything about it Boasberg advised lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union representing the men The statements raise fresh questions about the administration s compliance with the high court s order The Supreme Court request went to Alito who is assigned to handle urgency matters from Texas Alito one of the court s most of conservative justices could have either acted on his own or referred the matter to the full nine-member court With Boasberg saying he s unable to act the matter had hinged on an order by the high court or decisions on similar crisis requests filed with a New Orleans-based federal appeals court and a federal district judge in the Northern District of Texas where a multitude of of the men were in recent months transferred Related Articles Letters AI firms must show respect for content creators Appeals court rejects Trump s crisis request to stay lower court order in Venezuelans lawsuit More than international students and graduates in the US have had their visas revoked or statuses terminated Opinion years after the fall of Saigon We gained the world but lost our homeland Camp Pendleton identifies Marines who died in rollover crash patrolling the U S -Mexico margin Without judicial intervention potentially hundreds of people may be removed to a achievable life sentence in El Salvador with no real opportunity to contest their designation or removal lawyers for the men noted in their Supreme Court request The group had been informed they will be deported as soon as Friday afternoon and had already been loaded onto buses according to a court filing Boasberg halted the hearing for minutes so Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign could gather more information about practicable flight plans When he returned Ensign revealed he had spoken with representatives at the Department of Homeland Safeguard They explained that while there were no plans to remove people Saturday they reserve the right to remove people Ensign commented ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt stated That doesn t give us confidence there won t be planes The detainees allegedly had been given an English-only notice that didn t explain how they could contest their deportation or how much time they had to do so The notice the regime is providing does not remotely comply with the Supreme Court s order lawyers for the men mentioned in their Supreme Court filing Boasberg on March unsuccessfully ordered the regime to turn around planes that were carrying people to the Salvadoran prison without first getting judicial review of their cases At the hearing Ensign noted that Washington was not the appropriate place to file so-called habeas corpus petitions to contest the deportations Boasberg ultimately agreed saying they should raise it in the Northern District of Texas or with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Gelernt stated multiple of the men were moved to the Northern District of Texas after a judge in the Southern District of Texas issued a temporary order barring their deportations Ensign declared they had been moved there from all over the US Gelernt declared lawyers for the men would file petitions in all judicial districts in the US Inquired earlier Friday about whether he had authorized the operation Trump explained I don t know about the group you re talking about but if they re bad people I would certainly authorize it yeah Separately a federal appeals court in Washington on Friday temporarily blocked Boasberg from starting criminal contempt proceedings stemming from the March events The administrative stay gives the appeals court more time to consider how it will handle Boasberg s conclusion that cabinet officers evidenced willful disregard toward his order The three-judge panel laid out a briefing schedule that concludes next Friday The Supreme Court event is A A R P v Trump A With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron More stories like this are available on bloomberg com Bloomberg L P
