The American Civil Liberties Union appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, asking for an emergency injunction against the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan nationals held in Texas back to South America under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act.
The Supreme Court previously ruled there are restrictions on how the government can use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, including that those targeted under it are entitled to a hearing before being deported.
Hours before appealing to the Supreme Court on Friday, the ACLU had asked two federal judges for an injunction on the deportations.
One of the judges, James E. Boasberg, scheduled a Friday evening hearing over the request.
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Boasberg, who originally ruled on the Alien Enemies Act, previously found probable cause that the Trump administration committed criminal contempt in disobeying his ruling on the deportations.
The Supreme Court then ruled that only judges in the areas from where migrants are set to be deported have jurisdiction over their cases.
Boasberg is in Washington, D.C.
He told ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt on Friday evening at the emergency hearing, “I’m sympathetic to everything you’re saying, I just don’t think I have the power to do anything about it.”
Later Friday, another Washington, D.C.-based circuit judge issued an “administrative stay” on Boasberg’s contempt finding, “to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion for a stay pending appeal or a write of mandamus.”
The order said it should not be considered a ruling “on the merits” of the Trump administration’s motion again the contempt proceedings.
Judges in Colorado, New York and south Texas have temporarily halted deportations in those areas, but there’s no ban for the Venezuelan nationals facing possible deportation from the Bluebonnet Detention Center in northern Texas.
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The ACLU has called for a deportation ban on two Venezuelans being held at the center2, saying the administration is accusing them of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, and any immigrants in the region.
Separately, on Friday, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a bid by the Trump administration to strip around 350,000 Venezuelan migrants of their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which would make them eligible for deportation.
TPS lasts six to 18 months and applies to people from countries that are war-torn or have a natural disaster or some other event that makes returning dangerous.
The court upheld a March ruling from a lower court that stayed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s efforts to remove the protected status from some Venezuelans in the country.
President Trump on Friday also commented on the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who had been living in Maryland and had protections against deportation, who was mistakenly deported to a prison in the county last month.
“This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social with a picture of him holding a photo that shows tattoos on Garcia’s knuckles. The photo says the symbols on Garcia’s knuckles spell out MS-13.
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He continued: “They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13, beat up his wife, etc. I was elected to take bad people out of the United States, among other things. I must be allowed to do my job. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.