On April 7, the Supreme Court ruled that the government must give Venezuelan migrants notice “within a reasonable time” and the chance to legally challenge their removal before being deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
Exactly how much notice the Trump administration considered appropriate in response to the Supreme Court’s edict was revealed in a document unsealed during a hearing on Thursday in Federal District Court in Brownsville, Texas.
Before Saturday, when the Supreme Court issued a second order, which blocked the deportation of a group of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, detainees slated for deportation were given a one-page form that stated “if you desire to make a phone call, you will be permitted to do so,” according to the unsealed document, a four-page declaration by an official from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
They then had “no less than 12 hours” to “express an intent” to challenge their detention, and another 24 hours to file a habeas corpus petition asking for a hearing before a judge, the declaration said. The form itself is written in English, but “it is read and explained to each alien in a language that alien understands.”
The hearing was part of a case whose plaintiffs are three Venezuelan men being held at El Valle Detention Facility, roughly 50 miles from Brownsville.
Lawyers for detainees held elsewhere, who have sued in the Northern District of Texas, have disputed the government’s claims about being given notice. They also have said that the form was not explained to detainees and that they were simply told to sign the document, which the ICE declaration identified as Form AEA-21B.
The details about notice came during a two-hour hearing before Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr., who unsealed the ICE declaration after rejecting the government’s stance that it should remain sealed because it contained sensitive law-enforcement details.
Judge Rodriguez also some expressed skepticism about President Trump’s assertion in an executive order that the men could be deported under the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law, because of claims by the government that they are members of a gang. The government tried to defend Mr. Trump’s wording that activity by Tren de Aragua amounted to “an invasion” and “predatory incursion,” but it was unable to provide what the judge requested: documentation from the time the act was passed that supported that argument.
“You’re giving me your view of what the words mean,” he said. “What I’m looking for is what the words meant at the time.”
Immediately after the hearing, Lee Gelernt of the A.C.L.U., one of the lawyers for the three plaintiffs, said the notice given to his clients was insufficient.
“Twelve hours is obviously too short to find out who to contact, and 24 hours to file a habeas corpus petition is obviously inconsistent with any notion of due process, or the Supreme Court’s ruling,” he said.
Judge Rodriguez is one of at least five district court judges who have issued temporary restraining orders barring the administration from deporting individuals from their districts under the Alien Enemies Act. He and another of those five judges were appointed by Mr. Trump.
At the end of the hearing on Thursday, Judge Rodriguez extended his restraining order by one week, to May 2.
Alan Feuer contributed reporting.
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