No Scheduled Deportation Flights This Weekend, DOJ Lawyer Assures
A lawyer from the U.S. Department of Justice informed a federal judge that there are no scheduled deportation flights for Friday or Saturday, while maintaining that the administration retains the “right to remove people” potentially starting this weekend.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) urgently appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to safeguard Venezuelan men currently detained under immigration laws, who face the threat of immediate deportation. This follows President Donald Trump’s declaration, which utilizes a wartime law from the 18th century.
The ACLU insists that the Supreme Court should “maintain the current conditions for individuals contesting their deportation under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.” The organization stressed that the individuals in question are facing “imminent and ongoing risk of expulsion from the U.S. without prior notice or a chance for a hearing,” directly opposing a previous court order. This situation arose after President Trump employed the 1798 law last month to transfer Venezuelans to a large-scale prison in El Salvador.
The government had previously deported two groups of individuals, allegedly part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, to the Salvadoran Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), despite a prohibition on such actions under the AEA by District Court Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C. Although the Supreme Court recently lifted this prohibition, it stipulated that individuals targeted for deportation must first be notified and given an opportunity to contest their deportation in court, though it did not establish a specific timeline for these steps.
The ACLU’s legal action was a reaction to the events at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas, where Venezuelan detainees received notices of deportation. The petition, directed to Justice Samuel Alito, highlighted that “numerous individuals have already been placed on buses, presumably en route to the airport,” and referenced reports that a military deportation flight was being prepared imminently.
“Due to the ongoing and immediate threat of being deported to a prison in El Salvador, the applicants are pursuing relief both through a new request for a temporary restraining order in the District of Columbia’s district court and an application for a stay of removal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit,” the ACLU stated in the filing.
On Friday evening, Judge Boasberg convened an emergency hearing where DOJ attorney Drew Ensign, speaking to Politico’s Josh Gerstein, confirmed that there were no planned deportation flights under the AEA for that Friday night, and there were no known plans for Saturday either.
Camilo Montoya-Galvez from CBS News reported that Boasberg also questioned the adequacy of the notice provided to the migrants targeted for deportation, an image of which was shared by the reporter on social media platforms.
Montoya-Galvez further reported that after a brief recess during the hearing, the DOJ lawyer reiterated to Boasberg that although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had informed him there were no deportation plans for Saturday under the AEA, they still “reserve the right to remove people tomorrow.”
Earlier in the week, Boasberg determined that the Trump administration’s actions regarding the migrants sent to CECOT in March showed a “willful disregard for his order, enough for the court to believe that there is probable cause to consider the government in criminal contempt.”
Late Friday, a panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted an administrative stay, which halted the district court judge’s plans to proceed with contempt proceedings.
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