On Wednesday, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge in Texas to ban the White House from sending Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador.
The ACLU filing filed in U.S. District Court in Brownsville, Texas, responded directly to the Supreme Court decision on Monday. The decision allowed immigrants to challenge efforts to deport them under wartime laws known as the alien enemy law, but only where they were detained.
The three Venezuelans identified in the Texas filing, although only initials, have already secured a court order from a federal judge in Washington last month, preventing them from flying to El Salvador under President Trump's convened. However, the Supreme Court in its ruling over the orders by its judge, James E. Boasberg, saying that the ACLU case on behalf of the man should have been filed in Texas, not in Washington.
On Tuesday, the ACLU filed a similar lawsuit in New York, noting that two Venezuelans subject to Trump's declaration have been moved from a Texas detention center to one of the detention centers in the town of Goshen in Orange County, New York.
Trump's efforts to use alien enemy laws sparked one of his second term's most controversial legal battles to deport Venezuelan immigrant scores. It began last month after the president called a law that has only been used three times since it was passed in 1798, and then admitted he was a member of the violent Venezuelan street gangster Tren de Aragua to approve the deportation of those he claimed.
The ACLU quickly challenged Trump's use of law in court applications in Washington, despite the administration's launch of more than 100 Venezuelan immigrants on a plane to El Salvador. Once there they were placed in a mega prison called CECOT, known for its brutal state.
ACLU lawyers say the government has used the law illegally. This is to be called only at the time of a declared war, or during a “invasion” by a foreign or government.
In this week's ruling, the Supreme Court did not place any emphasis on the issue of whether Trump complying with such laws. But a federal appeals court in Washington last month found that this early stage was unlikely to see alien enemy laws apply in the way Trump is trying to use them.
Judge Boasberg also expressed skepticism about the use of the White House law, saying he was concerned there was no way to contest whether the immigrants that accompany it were members of the gang in the first place.
One of the men identified as JAV in the Texas filing is a 32-year-old Venezuelan who was detained by a federal immigration agent in a February asylum interview, primarily due to his tattoos, court documents say. He denied being a member of Tren de Aragua.
Jav's lawyers claim he is HIV positive and fear that he will be deported to El Salvador “because of his sexual orientation.” Like the other two men identified in the filing, he was nearly deported on a plane leaving Texas on March 15, but spared at the final moments by Judge Boasburg's first order.
Both JGG and other men known for filing as WGH denies belonging to Tren de Aragua.
