A federal judge in west Texas joined other courts in temporarily blocking the deportations of Venezuelan immigrants under an 18th-century wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act.
U.S. District Judge David Briones in El Paso, Texas, issued the ruling Friday while he ordered the release of a couple accused of being members of a Venezuelan criminal gang. Briones wrote that government lawyers “have not demonstrated they have any lawful basis" to continue detaining the couple on a suspected alien enemy violation.
A message left with an attorney for the couple wasn’t immediately returned Saturday.
The couple is accused of being part of Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization. Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act from 1798 that lets the president deport noncitizens 14 years or older who are from a country with which the U.S. is at war.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked, for now, the deportations of any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under the act. The high court also ruled anyone being deported under Trump's declaration deserved a hearing in federal court first and are given “a reasonable time” to contest their pending removals.
Briones' ruling applies only to Venezuelan immigrants in federal custody in his judicial district. Federal judges in Colorado, south Texas and New York previously issued similar rulings. Briones ordered the government to give a 21-day notice before attempting to remove anyone in west Texas — in contrast to the 12 hours that the government contends is sufficient.
The El Paso case comes as the Trump administration and local authorities clash over the president’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Briones' ruling occurred the same day as the FBI’s arrest of a Milwaukee judge accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities.
Briones, who was nominated to the court in 1994 by President Bill Clinton, said that “due process requirements for the removal of noncitizens are long established” under the Immigration and Nationality Act as well as previous U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
“There is no doubt the Executive Branch’s unprecedented peacetime use of wartime power has caused chaos and uncertainty for individual petitions as well as the judicial branch in how to manage and evaluate the Executive’s claims of Tren de Aragua membership, and the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act as a whole,” Briones wrote.
The couple, Julio Cesar Sanchez Puentes and Luddis Norelia Sanchez Garcia, was granted temporary protected status after entering the United States from Mexico in October 2022. They were notified that their status was terminated on April 1.
They were arrested April 16 at the El Paso airport as the couple prepared to return to their home in Washington, D.C., where they live with their three children. They had flown to Texas for an April 14 pretrial hearing related to removal proceedings. That case was continued until June 23, and the couple was allowed to remain free on bail, according to court documents.
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
34 Comments
TaiwanIsNotChina
Keep sending up judgements until we get some action from the Supreme Court.
bass4funk
And once they put these activist judges on ice he can resume the deportations.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Will never happen because you aren't willing to spend the money on judges and lawyers like you were told to.
bass4funk
Yeah, keep telling yourself that if it makes you sleep better at night. Lol
TokyoLiving
Well done judges, keep fighting MAGA fascist regime..
TokyoLiving
https://i.makeagif.com/media/6-23-2021/PJWQvv.mp4
LOL
I'veSeenFootage
Imagine being so stupid you think that deporting immigrants will actually solve all your country's problems. Problems that are all very obviously caused by the 1%, their corporations and the politicans they pay to do their bidding.
bass4funk
Yes, it will.
No, by Biden letting in over 10 million illegal Aliens or is your memory so short as to one of the main reasons why Democrats lost everything.
Bob Fosse
lol ‘short memory’ hoping the SC will rule in 47’s favor. Remember last time Mr memory?
Desert Tortoise
Literally everyone living in the US either immigrated from somewhere else or their parents, grandparents or some earlier generation of their family immigrated from somewhere else. Even the "Native Americans" came to North America from Asia. Immigration is what built the US and Canada and what made them great nations, especially the US. Ending immigration and kicking immigrants out, making the US a place nobody wants to come to will be the death of the US.
bass4funk
Funny, if it’s so funny then libs should welcome them into their communities…oh, wait, they did that already
https://youtu.be/sy3-S-MjQGo?si=SJHmBEc54k-mbtBJ
Libs want them, they just don’t want them living near them.
Yes and you can make that argument about everyone, everywhere globally, people have moved around and migrated for thousands of years, I get that, but what does with illegal aliens entering a sovereign nation? You’re going off on a tangent.
I agree with everything you said, but it’s an easy problem to solve, come in legally. Problem solved.
I'veSeenFootage
It provably won't. And it provably will make the economy worse. But feel free to argue how exactly deporting immigrants will: solve the school shooting epidemic, lower prices, make health care affordable, solve the fentanyl epidemic, lower wealth inequality, reduce homelessness, lower the debt, help with climate change...
10 million is about the total number of illegal aliens in the US. Most of them have been here for years, if not decades. Biden did not "let them in" in 4 years. Believing that would be denying reality and therefore plainly insane.
Absolutely everyone told us the democrats lost because of the economy. Not because 49.8% of people who voted in November wanted to see a mom separated from her 1 year-old daughter and put on a plane without due process. Only fascists want to see that.
Blacklabel
All that and not one mention of legal immigration being fine and illegal immigration being not fine.
there is a difference between the 2, correct?
lincolnman
Another day, another court loss - it has to be at least three weeks of daily LOSING for the Great Orange Loser...
Keep the losing streak going...it's making America great again...
Tokyo Guy
Texan judge does something right, and Cali overtakes Germany in economy rankings.
What a day to be an uber MAGA expat in Japan.
theFu
Faux News isn't unbiased news. If you want to make a point, best to use unbiased sources so you don't add to the deceit so common because any idiot can put up a website and write anything, true, partially true, or lies, that they want.
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fox-news-bias/
In short, find a better reference.
theFu
Most definitely. Legal immigration is important to America.
Illegal immigration needs to end. A year ago, there was a bi-partisan immigration bill that would have removed many "carrots" to illegal immigration. Trump wasn't a representative of anyone at the time, but he was able to get elected Republicans to kill that bill. He didn't want Biden getting an more credit for dealing with illegal immigration than he already deserved by deporting more illegal immigrants monthly than Trump ever did.
If Trump really cared about illegal immigration, who got credit wouldn't matter. Any law that makes it harder would be good, even if it is just a start. Why isn't Trump pushing for any immigration bill? Why is he wasting time and money on executive orders and not following up with new laws?
Because Trump only cares about Trump and Trump getting credit to stroke his ego. He needs to make up for so many insecurities and fear.
Blacklabel
law and order is great.
no?
I'veSeenFootage
The distinction would only be important if illegal immigrants commited more violent crimes. But they don't. Nor do immigrants in general.
https://news.northeastern.edu/2025/01/15/immigrant-crime-united-states/
So why pretend you care? Just have the courage to admit you want less non-white foreigners in the US.
Blacklabel
That tired narrative.
illegal immigrant crime should be zero.
as they shouldn’t exist to commit any.
it’s not nearly enough to just be less “per capita” than citizens.
lots of families wouldn’t have had to lose their loved ones to illegal crimes. Which has happened, a lot, correct?
lincolnman
Someone didn't get the MAGA-memo ref Fox...
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/24/media/trump-goes-after-fox-news-for-highlighting-his-cratering-economic-approval-ratings/index.html
Indeed...
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ny-v-trump-jury-verdict-former-presidents-historic-criminal-trial
bass4funk
It will, he has a mandate and that’s what the voters overwhelmingly elected him to do, now if the Dems want to defy the voters, that’s fine, they’re just furthering hurting their already quasi-destroyed party
No it won’t. Look at California, the economy is already in the tank and they have illegals galore and why is that? Because they have to build low-income housing and who pays for that? Taxpayers. Wait, but Newsom wants Federal aid??? Hmmmm
Less burden on the taxpayer more importantly, keeping our streets safer and we have enough native born criminals, we don’t need to add illegals to that mix.
Rough estimates, plus or minus, but 10 million at the least
So you’re trying to tell me the caravans and the thousands that wore Biden shirts and TikTok videos from illegals telling people how to sneak in America, former and current BPA who testified under oath how morale was low and how they hate Myorkas with a passion and how many agents quit and one committing suicide from the anguish and stress of the job and not being able to do their jobs, we watched millions pouring in, but it’s all just a lie, right? Lol
And more importantly immigration
You can keep the families together and then then deport them, but it’s not going to change, the deportations will continue.
theFu
It means even more when the top leaders actually respect the law and follow it, until it can be changed.
I'veSeenFootage
Shouldn't all crime be zero? Why focus on a minority of it?
Much, much, much less than families who lost their loved ones to crimes committed by american citizens. So "incorrect". That doesn't mean illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes shouldn't be deported, but focusing on that only is nothing but xenophobia. (Oh and by the way, Biden still deported more people than Trump 1 and Trump 2 isn't on course to beat him.)
Blacklabel
Immigration judges are getting so stupid.
an illegal wanted to be deported and bring her 2 years old kid born in USA.
Activist judge said no, the kid has “due process rights ” and must stay.
Blacklabel
because we can’t deport citizens.
I'veSeenFootage
He doesn't, and they didn't. There is nothing overwhelming about 49.8%. And not a word of this tired fox news talking point bingo tells us how deporting illegals will solve America's problems.
Yes it will.
https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/2024/12/mass-deportations-would-deliver-a-catastrophic-blow-to-the-u-s-economy
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/social-and-economic-effects-expanded-deportation-measures
Educate yourself please.
4th biggest economy in the world. Better than Japan. Are you out of your mind?
What burden? Undocumented immigrants pay mores taxes than they "cost".
https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/
Illegal immigrants commit less crimes than americans.
Yes it is. Calm down. You watch way too much fox news. Your brain is rotten.
But I'll ask the question again: you just admitted 10 million is the rough estimate. Do you think those 10 million all came in the 4 years when Biden was in office? Even though the vast majority of those 10 million have lived in the US for decades? And Biden deported a total of 4.4 million people?
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/-returner-in-chief-biden-era-deportations-surpass-trump-s-first-term-totals/3464602
Nope.
You can't if one spouse in American. How do you not understand this?
bass4funk
Because, there is absolutely no reason to bring in people with low to zero skills into a country where they would be a burden, California can’t even take care of their own citizens let alone 50k homeless people, but Dems want to use every resource to help them? Are you kidding me?
Again, this is you you guys lost.
lincolnman
Newsflash - that was a TRUMP-APPOINTED judge....
"A Trump-nominated federal judge in Louisiana said that a 2-year-old American citizen appears to have been deported "with no meaningful process."
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/26/nx-s1-5378077/honduras-deported-girl-citizen
Ouch...
I'veSeenFootage
Then why not try to fix the root cause of crime? The majority of it is committed by citizens anyway. But of course, the answer is: because the root cause of crime is wealth inequality, and fixing that would require going after the 1%, which republicans will never do because they are the 1% and/or they are cowards.
If you liked "following our laws" you would not vote for Trump. For whom are you pretending you care about the law?
I can say with absolute certainty I know more about American law than you do. In fact, I know more about pretty much everything than you do. Like people do. (It's not that hard.)
Blacklabel
"The parents made the decision to take the child with them to Honduras. It is common that parents want to be removed with their children," said Tricia McLaughlin, DHS' assistant secretary for public affairs.”
Seems like the father needs to speak with his illegal alien wife not a judge.
Blacklabel
how does that lead to women being murdered and assaulted by illegal alien males?
lincolnman
Evidently including ones APPOINTED BY TRUMP....
So why did Trump appoint an "activist judge"?
"A Trump-nominated federal judge in Louisiana said that a 2-year-old American citizen appears to have been deported "with no meaningful process."
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/26/nx-s1-5378077/honduras-deported-girl-citizen
Blacklabel
So im curious how a 2 year old gets individual “due process” outside of what the parents already decided- aren’t you curious?