Judge orders release of Venezuelan couple accused of being ‘alien enemies’
In a sharply worded ruling, a federal judge said the government failed to provide the court with substantial evidence showing that the couple were members of a gang and subject to deportation.
A U.S. district court judge has ordered two Venezuelan nationals living in D.C. to be released from immigration custody, saying the federal government has failed to provide substantial evidence to declare either of them was an “alien enemy” warranting removal under President Donald Trump’s order invoking the Alien Enemies Act.
The decision, issued Friday by El Paso-based Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones, marks the first time a judge has ruled that the Trump administration had erred in classifying someone as an “alien enemy” and ordered a release. Many of the relatives and attorneys for men the Trump administration has sent to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act have strongly denied that they are Tren de Aragua gang members. The Supreme Court ruled that the government needed to give anyone labeled an “alien enemy” a chance to contest that designation.
The judge in El Paso also went a step further in specifying that going forward, the government must provide detainees 21 days to contest their status, and they must be given a notice in a language they can understand. The Trump administration, in a separate case, recently shared a sample notification form, in which those labeled “alien enemies” were given 12 hours to state whether they planned to contest that designation.
Briones also barred the removal of any noncitizen being held in federal immigration custody within his district — a jurisdiction that includes El Paso and several counties along the U.S.-Mexico border eastward into San Antonio and Austin — under Trump’s order.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/04/26/ice-deportation-alien-enemies-act/
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