Inside the urgent struggle on the new expulsion effort of the Trump administration

On Thursday evening, lawyers helping the most risky Venezuelan immigrants to be dismissed from a law on 18th century war powers received a disturbing alert: US immigration officials distributed opinions in a detention center in Texas, informing migrants that they were considered as enemies under the law and would be returned to the country.

“I am an agent of the police authorized to apprehend, retain and withdraw extraterrestrial enemies,” read the opinion, a copy of which was filed before the Federal Court by the American American Liberties Union. “Consequently, under the law on extraterrestrial enemies, you have been determined to be a foreign enemy subject to apprehension, restraint and abolition of the United States.”

The opinion indicated that the migrant could make a phone call but did not specify to whom. The opinion of a single page also mentioned no way of calling on the order.

The Supreme Court held this month that migrants had to receive a prior notice that they are subject to the revocation under the law rarely invoked to the powers of war – and that they must have the possibility of contesting their dismissal to the court.

The news given to the BlueBonnet detention center in Anson, Texas, the warning of imminent deportations caused a burst of ACLU legal measures on Friday before several courts. Early on Saturday, the Supreme Court intervened at an unusual speed, judging that no flight could leave.

“The government is responsible for not withdrawing any member of the putative class of the United States inmates until the new ordinance of this Court,” said the court. It is not known when judges will make a decision on the question of whether expulsion flights can continue.