WASHINGTON (CN) — A group of Venezuelan men told the Supreme Court on Friday that the Trump administration planned to send them to prisons in El Salvador without a chance to challenge their removal, requesting emergency intervention to prevent their imminent deportation.
“Without this Court’s intervention, dozens or hundreds of proposed class members may be removed to a possible life sentence in El Salvador with no real opportunity to contest their designation or removal,” the men wrote.
The men said they could be removed as soon as Friday evening. Some detainees had already been loaded on buses, presumably headed to the airport.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that migrants facing removal under the Alien Enemies Act must have due process, including adequate time to challenge their deportation. The Venezuelan migrants said the Trump administration had violated that order.
“The Government’s actions to-date, including its lightning-fast timeline, do not give members of the proposed class a realistic opportunity to contest their removal under the AEA,” the men wrote. “The notices some members of the proposed class have received are in English only and do not inform proposed class members of their right to contest the designation in a federal court.”
Under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the president can detain and deport natives and citizens of an enemy nation. It has been used only three times in the nation’s history: during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II. President Franklin Roosevelt infamously ordered the internment of Japanese Americans under the statute.
In its prior ruling, the Supreme Court issued a divided ruling allowing President Donald Trump to continue deportations under the rarely used wartime power only if migrants were provided due process rights.
In a per curiam opinion, the justices said detainees are entitled to notice and an opportunity to be heard. Alien Enemies Act detainees specifically, the court wrote, must receive notice that they are subject to removal under the wartime power.
“The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs,” the court wrote.
Venezuelan migrants told the Supreme Court its order isn’t being followed.
“Emergency relief is necessary not only to preserve the status quo and prevent permanent and irreversible harm to Applicants, but also to preserve the courts’ jurisdiction, in light of the government’s position that it need not return individuals, even those mistakenly removed,” the men wrote.
Vice President JD Vance repeatedly undermined this assertion, however, suggesting that the right to due process may need to be suspended to tackle illegal immigration.
“To say the administration must observe ‘due process’ is to beg the question: what process is due is a function of our resources, the public interest, the status of the accused, the proposed punishment, and so many other factors,” Vance wrote in a lengthy post on X.
The Venezuelan migrants didn’t request any prohibition preventing the government from prosecuting crimes against them. The men said they could still be held in immigration custody or lawfully removed from the U.S.
“[The application] asks only that this Court preserve the status quo so that proposed class members will not be sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador before the American judicial system can afford them due process,” the men wrote.
Under the Alien Enemies Act, migrants can only appeal their detention through a habeas action, which is used to challenge detention. The migrants filed their appeal in Texas, asking for a temporary restraining order preventing their removal to Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas.
Last week, the Justice Department said that migrants would only receive 24 hours’ notice before removal. On Thursday, the lower court denied relief to the migrants, stating that the government didn’t expect to remove the men before their habeas petitions were resolved.
“Since the district court denied the TRO, Applicants have learned that officers at Bluebonnet have distributed notices under the Alien Enemies Act, in English only, that designate Venezuelan men for removal under the AEA, and have told the men that the removals are imminent and will happen today,” the men wrote. “These removals could therefore occur at any moment.”
The migrants said their experience mirrored that of the 137 Venezuelan men previously removed under the act. Earlier this week, a federal judge said the administration may be held in contempt for flouting his orders to return the planes carrying those migrants to the U.S.
Instead, the planes landed in El Salvador, where the men have been imprisoned in Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT.
Human Rights Watch says it is not aware of any detainees who have been released from CECOT. El Salvador’s government has tightly controlled access to the prison, but advocates believe the conditions inside include torture, ill-treatment, incommunicado detention and inhumane conditions, such as lack of access to adequate health care and food.