A U.S. official tells ABC News that there is planning underway for an imminent U.S. military deportation flight under the Alien Enemies Act.
The development comes as attorneys for several Venezuelan migrants who are being held in a detention center in Texas said they believe their clients are at “imminent risk” of being deported to El Salvador under the AEA.
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.
In a court filing Friday, the 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.”
In a 5-4 decision earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act — but said detainees must be given due process to challenge their removal.
ACLU submitted a document they say their clients received notifying them of their removal from the U.S. under the AEA.
ACLU
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 response to the notice, ACLU attorneys in Washington, D.C., on Friday afternoon asked U.S. District Judge James 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.”
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.”
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.”