Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Deportation of Venezuelans Held in Orange County Jail

A federal judge in New York has temporarily halted the deportation of two Venezuelan migrants being held at the Orange County Jail in Goshen, bringing national immigration policy into sharp focus in the Hudson Valley.

The rulings were in direct response to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling allowing President Donald Trump to use the Alien Enemies Act – a 1798 wartime law – to deport immigrants, but that immigrants can contest their removals. On April 8, two Venezuelans held at the ICE detention center in Goshen, N.Y. petitioned Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein to shield them from deportation. The next day, Judge Hellerstein issued a temporary restraining order stating that any Venezuelan migrant in his district must be given a hearing and notice before deportation.

“Today, the Southern District rightly blocked Donald Trump’s attempts to invoke a wartime act to remove people without due process in New York,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “The Alien Enemies Act occupies a deeply shameful place in history, and we will fight to ensure the government does not ensnare any more New Yorkers in its reckless abuse of power.”

The U.S. Southern District Court of New York includes Putnam, Orange, Sullivan, Dutchess, Westchester, New York, and Bronx counties.

In March, President Donald Trump announced he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport individuals accused of being part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, but experts have raised concerns that it is unclear how federal agencies will determine if someone is affiliated with the gang.

“This is not just about two individuals. This is about the class of people, the number of Venezuelans that may be subject to summary deportation, so it’s huge,” said Juana Cortes de Torres, Immigrant Legal Rights Project Director of the Rural & Migrant Ministry, a nonprofit organization serving rural and farmworking families with offices in South Fallsburg, Cornwall-on-Hudson, and other regions of New York.

Torres notes that while the ruling affirms that migrants have the right to due process under the Constitution, it reveals “the presidential power of proclaiming that individuals can be summarily removed under the Alien Enemies Act,” she adds.

Judge Hellerstein’s order also noted that “pending further order of this Court, not to transfer Petitioners, including members of the class certified by the Court in my Order Granting Petitioners’ Motion for Class Certification, from the Southern District of New York.”

The New York Southern District Court ruling stems from an emergency lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union, in partnership with The Legal Aid Society, whose clients are plaintiffs in the litigation and have pending asylum applications.

“Our clients, G.F.F. and J.G.O., have followed the legal steps required of them in their asylum process,” wrote the Legal Aid Society in a statement . “They are survivors of political repression and violence in Venezuela in search of safety and rightfully applying for humanitarian protections in the U.S.”

A preliminary injunction hearing has been scheduled for April 22.

Image: An individual holds an Immigration Detainer form at a detention facility. (Photo Credit: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)