A Supreme Court divided temporarily blocked the deportation of a group of Venezuelans by the administration of President Donald Trump, granting them an pardon so that they are not imminently sent to a noticeable prison in El Salvador.
The order, issued around 1:00 am on Saturday in Washington, occurred after the detainees submitted urgent requests in four courts to block their deportation of the Bluebonnet detention center in Anson, Texas. The men’s lawyers reported that they were going up to buses and that they would be deported Friday afternoon.
The Order of the Supreme Court prohibits the Government for using a war law to expel alleged Venezuelan gang members. The Court declared that the pause is applied “to a new order of this Court”, indicating that the judges will take additional measures after the Trump administration presents its response.
Judges Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito disagreed, And Alito said he will issue an opinion on the matter later.
The confrontation marks a new escalation in the Trump campaign to avoid the Federal Judiciary while trying to implement a series of high reach policies, including mass deportations. Last month, Trump sent more than 200 alleged gang members to the Salvadoran prison, even when a judge verbally ordered that two planes returned.
The intervention of the Supreme Court occurs 12 days after the judges ruled that the gang members accused of the Aragua train must obtain a reasonable time to challenge their deportation before a federal court. Many of the detainees claim not to be gang members and argue that Trump cannot deport them invoking the law of foreign enemies of 1798, a law that previously only applied in times of war. The Supreme Court has not resolved whether the use of said law by Trump is legal.
Rapagas Friday
The intense activity in the case included an emergency hearing on Friday night before the federal district judge James Boasberg in Washington, where a lawyer of the Department of Justice said that deportation flights had not been planned for that night or on Saturday.
On the other hand, on Friday, the district judge James Hendrix, from the northern district of Texas, refused to stop deportations, claiming that he needed more time to evaluate “Affairs of such importance and complexity”. The Court of Appeals of the Fifth US Circuit, based in New Orleans, then refused to intervene.
Boasberg said that because men are arrested in Texas, it has no authority to decide on the dispute.
“At this time, I just think I have the power to do anything about it,” Boasberg told the US union lawyers for civil liberties that represent men.
At the hearing, the lawyer of the Department of Justice, Drew Ensign, said he had spoken with officials of the Department of National Security, Those who said that although there were no plans to deport people on Saturday, “the right to expel people is reserved.”
ACLU’s lawyer Lee Gelernt said: “That doesn’t give us confidence that there will be no planes.”
‘There is no real opportunity’
Men’s lawyers told the Supreme Court that, without judicial intervention, potentially hundreds of people “They could be deported to a possible life imprisonment in El Salvador without a real opportunity to challenge their designation or dismissal.”
Supposedly the detainees had been given a notice in English only that they did not explain how they could challenge their deportation or how long they had to do so.
“The notice that the Government is providing or remotely complies with the order of the Supreme Court,” The lawyers of the men said in their presentation before the judges.
The United States accused a man, known as AARP, of having “tattoos and contacts that indicate belonging to a gang,” according to the complaint filed in Texas. Another man, known as WMM, was allegedly affiliated with the gang according to emojis in his social networks and a comment from another person on social networks, according to the complaint.
March 15, Boasberg unsuccessfully ordered the Government to return the planes carried by people to the Salvadoran prison without first obtaining a judicial review of their cases.
At Friday’s audience, Glernt declared that many of the men were transferred to Bluebonnet after a judge from another Texas area issued a temporary order that prohibited their deportation. Colorado and New York judges have also issued similar orders.
Ensign said they had been transferred there from all parts of the United States. Gellnt said that men’s lawyers would present requests in the 94 judicial districts of the United States.
When asked on Friday if he had authorized the operation, Trump said: “I don’t know about the group you are talking about, but if they are bad people, I would certainly authorize it, yes.”
Besides, A Federal Court of Appeals in Washington temporarily blocked Boasberg on Friday so that a criminal process for contempt of the events of March 15 is not initiated.
The administrative suspension gives the Court of Appeals more time to consider how Boasberg’s conclusion will address that government officials showed a “Deliberate ignorance” towards your order. The three judges panel established a calendar of information sessions that concludes next Friday.
