Judge Blocks Removal of Potential Deportees From Texas District

The Supreme Court had issued a temporary order blocking removals.

Salvadoran prison guards with alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the MS-13 gang recently deported by the United States. Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Reuters

A federal judge has temporarily restrained the Trump administration from removing individuals from the Southern District of Texas as part of the president’s attempt to deport Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act.

U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez said in his April 24 order that absent emergency relief, “a substantial likelihood exists that the [administration] will remove individuals whom the [administration] may claim are subject to the Proclamation and to removal under the Alien Enemies Act.”

His order followed a separate order on April 19 in which the Supreme Court temporarily prevented the administration from removing members of a putative class, which included individuals in the Northern District of Texas.

That decision prompted a dissent from Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who suggested the court moved too quickly and overlooked key legal issues.

The Supreme Court previously vacated two district court orders preventing Alien Enemies Act deportations. A majority stated that challenges to the Trump administration’s actions should be brought in habeas, a legal avenue that has since been pursued in multiple districts, including in Rodriguez’s court.

On April 23, the administration told Rodriguez he lacked jurisdiction to provide the relief the plaintiffs were seeking.

“This Court lacks jurisdiction to review the Proclamation or enjoin the President’s exercise of authority under Article II and the [Alien Enemies Act],” Department of Justice attorney Drew Ensign said in the filing. “The Supreme Court has long recognized that courts cannot issue an injunction purporting to supervise the President’s performance of his duties.”

A separate filing on April 24 showed a declaration in which an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official stated that the administration was providing notice to individuals subject to President Donald Trump’s proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act. The declaration said that detainees were given at least 24 hours to file a habeas petition and that ICE wouldn’t remove them while the petition was pending.

In its earlier decision vacating district court orders, the Supreme Court had said that “detainees must receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act.”

“The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs,” it added.

Rodriguez expressed concern that the detainees wouldn’t have enough time to seek relief under habeas.

“In the present matter, the Court finds that the removal of any individual by the United States based on the Proclamation and the Alien Enemies Act would cause immediate and irreparable injury to the removed individuals, as they would be unable to seek habeas relief,” he said.