Judge Rejects Trump Admin’s Demand to ‘Blindly Trust’ Them in Deportation Case of Law-Abiding Venezuelan Man

A federal judge in California has issued a preliminary injunction that says the Trump administration cannot deport a man from Venezuela to a notorious work jail in El Salvador without giving him at least two weeks’ notice of “any” attempt to remove him.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes, who was appointed by Joe Biden, agreed to change a temporary restraining order (TRO) she issued on April 25 to a preliminary injunction for Yostin Sleiker Gutierrez-Contreras. Gutierrez-Contreras came to the U.S. in May 2024 and was registered in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) biometric reporting database.

Sykes wrote that Gutierrez-Contreras raises “a serious question” about whether his removal under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), an old law from 18th-century wartime that is rarely used, would violate his due process rights without giving him 14 days’ warning. According to the TRO she issued in April, the government had to give this kind of notice. The decision on Wednesday means that they can’t deport him without giving two weeks’ notice until a final judgment is made. There is no class action in this case, so the decision only affects Gutierrez-Contreras.

“The status quo must still be maintained to avoid the immediate and irreparable harm that may happen,” Sykes said.

Gutierrez-Contreras went to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Bernardino, California, in September 2024. Based on the tattoos he had, they decided that he “had a possible affiliation” with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).

Gutierrez-Contreras “vigorously denied any TdA affiliation” and was allowed to stay in the country as long as she was watched. Federal officials arrested Gutierrez-Contreras on March 19 even though he was said to have “perfectly complied” with his supervision. On March 26, a judge ordered his release with conditions until his trial, but ICE agents took him back into custody right away.

Gutierrez-Contreras’ lawyer found out on April 12 that the government was going to send him to El Salvador under the AEA. Two days later, he was moved from California to a prison in Texas.

Sykes said on Wednesday that people who are being held under the Alien Enemies Act “must receive notice…that they are subject to removal under the Act” and that this notice must be given “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.”

According to Sykes, the government had not given the court what it thought was correct warning “within a reasonable time” as required by the Supreme Court.

The Trump administration was able to file a notice for Gutierrez-Contreras and what they thought was a fair amount of time, which was a “limited window” of 12 hours. However, Sykes said the paperwork was “inadequate” for a number of reasons.

Sykes said, “First, respondents’ notice form is only written in English. It doesn’t say anything about a person’s right to ask for their AEA decision to be reviewed or about their limited 12-hour window to say they want to file a habeas petition before they are put on a plane for removal.” “Further, this form doesn’t tell detainees why they were designated for removal as an AEA, and the court has no guarantee that respondents will read it to them in a language they understand other than their word that they will,” the judge said.

Sykes said that the government has not given “any information” to back up the DOJ’s worries about operational safety and other reasons why they don’t have to give 14 days’ notice.

Instead, the respondents seem to think that the court will believe them without any proof and just take their word for it, which is similar to what they did when they said the government had made good plans for giving people under the AEA enough time to prepare for their removal in their opposition to the TRO, she wrote.

Sykes brought up the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a protected father from Maryland whose lawyers say he was wrongfully sent back to El Salvador by the Trump government without any help getting him back.

“If the United States wrongly sent a person to another country based on the Proclamation, there is a good chance that person could not be brought back to the United States,” Sykes said, citing the case.

The government says Gutierrez-Contreras’ claim of harm is “purely speculative” because he hasn’t been labeled a “alien enemy” and the Department of Homeland Security has set up good ways for people to question any future removals under the AEA. It had said before that giving relief would hurt foreign policy in a way that couldn’t be fixed. But, according to Sykes, the DOJ didn’t explain how, other than citing different cases that warned about the “dangers of judicial interference in the conduct of foreign policy.”

The judge said, “Again, the court will not rely solely on Respondents’ word when a person’s due process rights are at stake.”

About The Author