Extraordinary footage has emerged of busloads of Venezuelan detainees in the process of being deported before a stunning Supreme Court intervention.
Justice Samuel Alito, one of the nation’s top ranking legal authorities, issued a fiery dissent to the decision which forced the Trump administration to temporarily halt the deportation of any Venezuelans held in a northern Texas detention facility under an 18th-century wartime law which has been the basis for its actions so far.
In his written ruling, Alito cited a government lawyer who insisted the administration had no intention of deporting anyone on Good Friday or Easter Saturday.
Now, new footage obtained by NBC raises questions about that, showing buses loaded with at least 28 detainees from the facility en route to the airport.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement buses were closely followed by a motorcade of 18 squad cars from varying law enforcement agencies.
According to the publication, the detainees – primarily Venezuelan – had been placed on the bus on Friday evening at ICE’s Bluebonnet Detention Center and were heading toward Abilene Airport.
Judy Maldonado Rall, whose husband was reportedly on the bus at the time, said her husband was told by a guard he was headed toward the hellhole El Salvadorian prison where Trump has previously sent more than 200 suspected gang members.
She said after the buses were turned around, a guard told her husband: ‘Well, you were lucky you were sent back because you were going to El Salvador, not Venezuela.’
Extraordinary footage has emerged of busloads of Venezuelan detainees in the process of being deported before a stunning Supreme Court intervention
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement buses were closely followed by a motorcade of 18 squad cars from varying law enforcement agencies
Justice Samuel Alito (bottom row, second from right) issued an extraordinary dissent, joined by fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas (bottom row, second from left), slamming the seven-member majority decision
In the footage, the motorcade reaches the airport but passes by the exit and loops back around, returning to Bluebonnet detention facility.
That evening, the Supreme Court was weighing an urgent request to block the administration from conducting any deportations.
Simultaneously, Trump’s nemesis Judge James Boasberg was hearing a case on the same matter. Lee Gelernt, a lawyer representing the American Civil Liberties Union, told the court: ‘We hear they are on buses on the way to the airport.’
That sprung Boasberg into action, and he asked Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign to ensure no Bluebonnet detainees were being deported under the Alien Enemies Act on Friday night.
Boasberg was burned by the administration before, after his ruling to turn planes carrying deportees around to ensure due process went ignored.
By early Saturday morning, a 7-2 Supreme Court majority ruled Trump must not deport any Venezuelans held in the northern Texas detention facility.
His administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify sending hundreds of suspected gang members and illegal migrants to a hellish El Salvadorian prison last month.
Alito’s sharp dissent argued the court acted ‘literally in the middle of the night’ and with ‘dubious factual support’ to take the extraordinary measure of blocking the government.
The administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify sending hundreds of suspected gang members and illegal migrants to a hellish El Salvadorian prison last month
He said the legal filings, ‘while alleging that the applicants were in imminent danger of removal, provided little concrete support for that allegation.’
He noted that while the court did not hear directly from the government regarding any planned deportations under the Alien Enemies Act in this case, a government lawyer in a different matter had told a US District Court in a hearing Friday evening that no such deportations were then planned to occur on Good Friday or Easter Saturday.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not comment on why the bus from the facility was turned around near the airport.
‘Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law,’ he said, warning his colleagues to ‘follow established procedures’ in the decision-making process.
‘Literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief.’
He said the Supreme Court acted ‘without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order.
‘I refused to join the Court’s order because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate.’
Conservatives hold a majority in the Supreme Court, but high profile Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett signed off on the decision.
Trump has repeatedly slammed the many legal challenges to his policy, which was one of his promises on the campaign trail
The majority did not provide a detailed explanation in the order early Saturday, as is typical. A brief order directed the administration not to remove Venezuelans held in the Bluebonnet Detention Center ‘until further order of this court.’
But the court previously said deportations could proceed only after those about to be removed had a chance to argue their case in court and were given ‘a reasonable time’ to contest their pending removals.
More than 200 suspected gang members are languishing in an El Salvadorian hellhole prison as the Trump administration makes good on its promise to crack down on illegal migration.
The move sparked legal challenges and widespread division amid concerns that some of the people rounded up and deported were mistakenly targeted. Most recently, podcaster Joe Rogan expressed concerns about the policy.
At the center of the division is 29-year-old father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who supporters say was wrongly deported.
The Trump administration later Saturday filed paperwork urging the high court to reconsider its hold.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X: ‘We are confident we will ultimately prevail against the onslaught of meritless litigation brought by radical activists.’
The controversial act at the center of the legal back and forth has been invoked just three times in US history – including during both World Wars.
Alito said the legal filings, ‘while alleging that the applicants were in imminent danger of removal, provided little concrete support for that allegation’
The act allows the President to forcibly remove citizens of an ‘enemy nation’ who it deems to be ‘dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States’ or involved in ‘treasonous’ acts
It allows the President to forcibly remove citizens of an ‘enemy nation’ who it deems to be ‘dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States’ or involved in ‘treasonous’ acts.
Challenges have been making their way through various courts since the act was invoked.
But the American Civil Liberties Union lodged an emergency filing on Friday warning that authorities had started to accuse men in the Texas detention facility of being members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang.
Such an accusation leaves them vulnerable to deportation under the act.
