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District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney cited the high court's
weekend order barring removal of anyone from North Texas, where
the ACLU had contended the administration was preparing to
deport Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 without
giving them the legal notice required under a prior Supreme
Court ruling.
Sweeney continued her freeze on removals from Colorado until May
6 and indicated she may extend it further.
She required the federal government to provide 21 days' notice
to anyone it seeks to deport so they can contest their removal.
She also expressed skepticism about the legality of Trump's use
of the law to claim the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was
invading the United States.
“At a bare minimum, ‘invasion’ means more than the
Proclamation’s description of TdA’s ‘infiltrat(ion),’ ‘irregular
warfare,’ and ‘hostile actions’ against the United States,”
Sweeney wrote.
The Supreme Court earlier this month allowed deportations under
the act but required the government to give those targeted a
“reasonable” chance to contest the removals in court. The act
has only been invoked three times in history, most recently in
World War II, and the Supreme Court has yet to hear arguments
about whether Trump can use it against a gang.
Several federal judges, including Sweeney, issued orders
temporarily halting deportations in their areas in response to
the initial high court ruling. The ACLU asked the Supreme Court
to halt removals from an immigration detention center in North
Texas, where a judge had not barred deportations, because it
said Venezuelan migrants were given notice in English of their
pending removal and not told they had the right to contest it in
court. The court barred those removals in an unusual order early
Saturday.
The federal government argued it was too soon for the courts to
act because it wasn't trying to remove the individual plaintiffs
who filed the lawsuit at the time. But Timothy Macdonald, an
ACLU attorney, contended that was a “shell game” that could lead
the government to quickly deport someone the second a court
decides it doesn't have jurisdiction over their case.
Sweeney agreed, extending her order and scheduling arguments for
whether she should make it permanent.
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