Trump’s executive order, issued on March 15, invoked the rarely used Alien Enemies Act to arrest and deport Venezuelan nationals who are members of Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal organization based in Venezuela.
According to the petition, one detainee, a 32-year-old Venezuelan national using the pseudonym J.G.O., had publicly protested socialist rule under Nicolás Maduro in his home country before crossing the U.S. border into El Paso, Texas, in September 2022.
In a court affidavit, an immigration attorney said the detainee applied for political asylum in 2023 out of fear that if he were to return to Venezuela, he would be tortured, imprisoned, or murdered by the Venezuelan police and military for his past political activism.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested the detainee at his New York home in January. He would have been deported in March to El Salvador, which has happened to more than 130 Venezuelan nationals since the Trump proclamation, had it not been for the now-lifted nationwide stay on the executive order, according to the petition.
The detainee denies any gang affiliations, his immigration attorney said in a court affidavit.
The other Venezuelan detainee, with the pseudonym G.F.F., entered the U.S. border near El Paso, Texas, in May 2024 and filed for asylum on the basis that he would face harassment from Tren de Aragua gang members for his sexual orientation if he were to return to his home country.
He, too, denies any association with gangs, according to a court affidavit.
The temporary restraining order prohibits the removal of the two men or other Venezuelans in similar situations within the Southern District of New York under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) until proper notices are served and due hearings are conducted amid the deportation proceedings.
“I leave considerations as to the validity of the Presidential Proclamation under the AEA for another day,” District Judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote in an April 9 order granting class certification in the case.
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for April 22 to determine the type of hearings or other due processes required under the Alien Enemies Act before deportations can take place.
The two Venezuelan men are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Orange County Jail is the only county correctional facility in the New York metropolitan area that has an ICE contract for housing federal detainees.
