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Just released a 37-page ruling from Chief Judge James #Boasberg, denying the #Trump administration request to vacate its TROs preventing the government from enforcing the #AlienEnemiesAct against #Venezuelans.
No one subject to the #AEA can be deported without a hearing.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.53.0.pdf
Judge #Boasberg also finds that the Foreign Affairs Reform & Restructuring Act (#FARRA) protections likely remain available to #AlienEnemiesAct removals.
Under FARRA, these plaintiffs could seek #UN Convention Against #Torture (#CAT) protections due to *where* they were being taken — #CECOT has been accused of #HumanRights violations before.
Judge #Boasberg terrifyingly describes the #ElSalvador prison #CECOT knowing that:
- The #Trump admin admitted "many of the TdA members ... do not have criminal records”
- Several cases of misidentification have emerged
- The most senior #DOJ ofcls signed a brief saying these detainees would not suffer "irreparable harm"
!['highly Likely to face immediate & intentional life-threatening harm [El Salvador] govt has boasted that inmates in CECOT "never leave"; indeed, one expert declarant alleges that she does not know of any CECOT inmate who has been released. In a sample of 131 cases, [it was] found that 115 family members of detainees have not received any info about the whereabouts or wellbeing …rarely allowed to leave their cells, have no regular access to drinking water or adequate food, sleep standing up because of overcrowding & are held in cells where they do not see sunlight for days. "tuberculosis, fungal infections, scabies, severe malnutrition & chronic digestive issues are common." disciplined through beatings & humiliation. One inmate clamed that police beat prison newcomers with batons. When he denied being a gang member, they sent him to a dark basement cell with 320 detainees, where prison guards & other detainees beat him every day. On one occasion, one guard beat him so severely that [he] broke a rib." Three prior deportees from the United States reported being kicked in the face, neck, abdomen, & testicles, with one requiring "an operation for a ruptured pancreas & spleen." Needless to say, the risk of torture, beatings, & even death clearly & unequivocally supports a finding of irreparable harm](https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/114/218/062/180/713/879/original/9c38e9095241315a.png "'highly Likely to face immediate & intentional life-threatening harm [El Salvador] govt has boasted that inmates in CECOT \"never leave\"; indeed, one expert declarant alleges that she does not know of any CECOT inmate who has been released. In a sample of 131 cases, [it was] found that 115 family members of detainees have not received any info about the whereabouts or wellbeing …rarely allowed to leave their cells, have no regular access to drinking water or adequate food, sleep standing up because of overcrowding & are held in cells where they do not see sunlight for days. \"tuberculosis, fungal infections, scabies, severe malnutrition & chronic digestive issues are common.\" disciplined through beatings & humiliation. One inmate clamed that police beat prison newcomers with batons. When he denied being a gang member, they sent him to a dark basement cell with 320 detainees, where prison guards & other detainees beat him every day. On one occasion, one guard beat him so severely that [he] broke a rib.\" Three prior deportees from the United States reported being kicked in the face, neck, abdomen, & testicles, with one requiring \"an operation for a ruptured pancreas & spleen.\" Needless to say, the risk of torture, beatings, & even death clearly & unequivocally supports a finding of irreparable harm")
#UnitedStates govt affidavit saying: "While it is true that many of the TdA members removed under the AEA do not have criminal records in the United States"
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.26.1_7.pdf
DOJ brief signed by #Trump’s AG #PamBondi & the senior leadership at the #DOJ saying, "Plaintiffs have not established irreparable harm."
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.26.0_3.pdf
!["[T]he most reasonable inference is that it hustled people onto those planes in the hopes of evading an injunction or perhaps preventing them from requesting the habeas hearing to which the Government now acknowledges they are entitled."](https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/114/218/141/077/533/175/original/bc82acf77b4690f3.png "\"[T]he most reasonable inference is that it hustled people onto those planes in the hopes of evading an injunction or perhaps preventing them from requesting the habeas hearing to which the Government now acknowledges they are entitled.\"")
The oral arguments in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals for #Trump’s #AlienEnemiesAct appeal is will be live streamed starting at 1:30pm ET today.
You can watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DoTLGECQSU
Or if you prefer to listen, audio will be available here:
#Trump #DOJ atty starts by arguing #Boasberg’s order infringes on the powers of the Executive Branch.
Judge immediately interrupts by saying it is totally under the judicial powers to review whether individuals qualified under the #AlienEnemiesAct & were denied #DueProcess to prove they were not members of the gang #TdA.
Judge says the problem isn’t with the proclamation but the implementation. If #Trump intends to deport only members of #TdA, the fact that nonmembers are being deported doesn’t align with his proclamation. The Temporary Restraining Order #TRO issued by Judge #Boasberg allows the admin to detain but prohibits removal to another country until the detainees have been given an opportunity to argue that they were not TdA members & therefore were not subject to the #AlienEnemiesAct.
#law #immigration
The #Trump #DOJ atty just told the judge she is incorrectly reading #Ludecke. 
Ryan Goodman noted that Judge #Boasberg in his ruling this morning correct interprets Ludecke.
“Chief Judge Boasberg read landmark Supreme Court case of Ludecke the right way!
“Ludecke Court assessed the factual question of whether WWII terminated.
“So too can courts assess Trump ‘invasion’ etc claims.”
#Trump admin argues that relief can only be sought by #HabeasCorpus.
Judge asks why not #DueProcess? If individual’s argument is that they should not be subject to #AEA then habeas is not the correct path. The individuals are being removed not detained. They aren’t even arguing against their detention, they’re objecting to their removal to an #ElSalvador prison. Without process they aren’t being given opportunity to defend their removal subject to the AEA.
Judge: Your argument is that this is an intrusion on presidential powers. But removing individuals without process, without giving them the opportunity to say they aren’t members of the TdA is a misreading of the #law, the #AlienEnemiesAct. And that is subject to judicial review. The president has to follow the constitution & laws just like everybody else.
Plaintiffs atty now up. Lee Gelernt from the ACLU.
Plans to address courts do have the power of judicial review.
First wants to clarify that the district court is not ordering the individuals be returned from the El Salvador prison.
The govt saying that people have ability to seek relief through #habeas is illusory.
If you’re not seeking release it doesn’t have to be a habeas claim.
Most of Gelernt’s time was spent discussing whether habeas claims should have been filed in TX bc the 5 named plaintiffs are currently held there.
1. This is a class action suit. The 5 named plaintiffs stand in for numerous others. Gelernt said because the govt is refusing to share info, it’s impossible to know where any of them are so he would have to file in every state.
2. Habeas’ core relief is release. Release is not being sought in *this* case. Enjoining removal to a foreign country is.
Well audio went out, then when it came back, it was another case at the appeals court. We’ll have find out what else was discussed later. 
#Trump admin doesn't need to give notice to people it wants to deport, #DOJ argues
A federal appeals court has finished hearing arguments over whether to lift a judge’s #TRO against Trump’s use of a wartime authority to quickly deport alleged members of a #Venezuelan gang.
As the hearing came to a close, a DOJ atty told the court that he didn’t think the govt needed to give notice to individuals it wants to summarily remove under the #AlienEnemiesAct.
#law #immigration
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-news-03-24-25/index.html
“Does the government agree that they’re entitled to notice that they are being removed based on their status as a member of Tren de Aragua under the president’s proclamation under the (#AEA) & an opportunity to challenge that before they are removed from the United States?” appeals court Judge Patricia Millett asked DOJ atty Drew Ensign.
“Your honor, we don’t agree to the notice point,”the #DOJ atty replied. “We agree that if you bring habeas you can raise such challenges,” a reference to habeas corpus, the constitutional right to protection against illegal detention.
[these #habeas petitions would need to be filed from a #ElSalvador prison where they are subject to frightening #HumanRights violations]
The hearing concluded after just over an hour. The 3-judge panel did not say when it would rule, but could at any time.
Holy crap
In a new affidavit in #AEA by someone turned around in #ElSalvador, they swear the following:
"Within a couple of minutes of take off I heard two US government officials talking and they said 'there is an order saying we can’t take off but we already have.'"
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.55.1_2.pdf
Woo hoo!!!!
NEW: The US Court of Appeals for DC just DENIED #Trump's request to stay Judge #Boasberg's halt on the use of the #AlienEnemiesAct.
The decision is 2-1, w/ Trump appointee Judge Walker dissenting [shocker] on jurisdictional [technical, not merits] grounds, arguing the lawsuit should have been brought in Texas.
@Nonilex Listening in on this one, certainly sounds like the judge(s) already have serious doubts that anything has been done incorrectly by Boasberg.
Resistance Starts NOW @Nonilex Two hours after the proclamation was signed. You don’t round people up, shame their heads, load them on a plane, taxi & takeoff all within 2 hours without prior planning.
@Nonilex I think the SCOTUS has decided otherwise tho?
No. If their argument law is being misinterpreted & inappropriately applied that can be reviewed by the courts & corrected by the government.
I assume you’re talking about their immunity decision. That was regarding the president’s acts within his official duties.
Excellent reminder that quite literally the Trump administration tantrum is about a TRO, but of course it's about so much more.
@Nonilex Henderson finally spoke up, to wit, "Do we wrap this up now?"
@Nonilex
I.smell multi-million dollar lawsuits.
@ChrisHolladay @Nonilex They will deserve every cent - the treatment these people suffered is unspeakable.
@Nonilex ohhh Boasberg is gonna love that! Wonder if he'll receive this info before tomorrow's hearing?
@Nonilex the part of me that thinks fascist rule is here for a while is relieved to see the tyrant’s apparatchiks acting like schoolchildren who just got away with something. Let’s keep fighting.
Of course the order didn’t say they couldn’t take off, it said they couldn’t take people to el salvador. So there is that.
@Nonilex Contempt of court much? Sounds a bit like it!
@Nonilex did you see the line about threatening them to sign confessions?...!!!
@Nonilex "brought in Texas" == "brought in a court we own"
@Nonilex
Yays for justice
See how fast he runs to his paid bitches on SCOTUS.
@Nonilex They’re trying to get this case moved to Republican hack in Texas
@Nonilex Ooh, Trumpty won’t like this! Calls for another judge to be impeached incoming!
@Nonilex That last sentence there seems to be one Trump and his puppetmasters have real problems with. Aside from the fact that "Constitution" has too many syllables for him to read it without using his finger...
@Nonilex But he won't. And he controls the marshalls.
"El juez afirma que el problema no radica en la proclamación, sino en su implementación. Si Trump pretende deportar solo a miembros de la TdA, el hecho de que se deporte a personas que no son miembros no concuerda con su proclamación. La Orden de Restricción Temporal (TRO) emitida por el juez Boasberg permite al gobierno detener, pero prohíbe la deportación a otro país hasta que los detenidos hayan tenido la oportunidad de argumentar que no eran miembros de la TdA y, por lo tanto, no estaban sujetos a la Ley de Enemigos Extranjeros.