Judge David Briones / screen image
A federal judge in West Texas halted the deportation of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members under the Alien Enemies Act.
US District Judge David Briones, a Clinton appointee, on Friday ordered the release of two suspected TdA members. The judge admonished DOJ lawyers and said they “have not demonstrated they have any lawful basis” to keep the couple detained.
The couple, Julio Cesar Sanchez Puentes and Luddis Norelia Sanchez Garcia, arrived in the US from Mexico in 2022 and were granted temporary protected status (TPS) by the Biden Regime. President Trump terminated the TPS program, and the couple was arrested earlier this month at the El Paso airport.
“There is no doubt the Executive Branch’s unprecedented peacetime use of wartime power has caused chaos and uncertainty for individual petitions as well as the judicial branch in how to manage and evaluate the Executive’s claims of Tren de Aragua membership, and the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act as a whole,” Judge Briones wrote, according to The Associated Press.
Judge Briones’ ruling applies to all illegal aliens facing deportation under the Alien Enemies Act in his Texas judicial district.
Other federal judges in New York, Colorado, and South Texas have issued similar rulings.
Excerpt from AP:
A federal judge in west Texas joined other courts in temporarily blocking the deportations of Venezuelan immigrants under an 18th-century wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act.
U.S. District Judge David Briones in El Paso, Texas, issued the ruling Friday while he ordered the release of a couple accused of being members of a Venezuelan criminal gang. Briones wrote that government lawyers “have not demonstrated they have any lawful basis” to continue detaining the couple on a suspected alien enemy violation.
The couple is accused of being part of Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization. Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act from 1798 that lets the president deport noncitizens 14 years or older who are from a country with which the U.S. is at war.
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