Trump admin demands SCOTUS allow deportation of illegal immigrant detainees who ‘threatened to take hostages,’ ‘harm ICE officers’ while in detention

The administration argued in a 66-page court filing that recent "dangerous behavior" from at least 23 of the alleged gang members in the detention facility justifies their immediate removal from the United States. The group "barricaded themselves in a housing unit for several hours and threatened to take hostages and harm ICE officers," according to the court filing. The incident occurred at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas, on May 4.

Last month, Supreme Court justices issued an emergency overnight ruling that temporarily blocked the government from deporting 176 Venezuelan immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) after lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) asked SCOTUS to intervene.

US Solicitor General John Sauer told the justices in the court filing that the detained Venezuelans would be deemed removable "even under non-AEA authorities, such as Title 8 of the United States Code." The detainees involved in the recent incident were transferred to the Pairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. The Trump administration said that moving the alleged gang members to other US facilities "creates ongoing risks of prison recruitment and expansion of Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang activities within the United States."

"That is an alarming prospect, given that TdA has 'conducted kidnappings, extorted businesses, bribed public officials, authorized its members to attack and kill US law enforcement, and assassinated a Venezuelan opposition figure' - prompting the Secretary of State to deem TdA a threat to national security," the Trump administration argued in the court filing.

President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act immediately upon taking office in January, which is intended to expedite the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants involved with designated foreign terror organizations, such as Tren de Aragua and MS-13. The administration has already deported over 200 Salvadoran and Venezuelan men to the maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador, Reuters reported.

The suspected gang members in Texas were scheduled to be deported under the AEA on April 19, but SCOTUS halted their removal. The ACLU argued that the administration failed to provide the detainees the opportunity to dispute their deportation, which is not required under the AEA.