Venezuelan men in Colorado cannot be removed under Trump's order

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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A federal judge in Colorado has demanded that the Trump administration “not remove” a pair of Venezuelan men in immigration custody who say they have been wrongly “persecuted” and “characterized in the media” as members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang — saying they must remain in the U.S. until the Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit or lower court vacates her new order protecting them, as the president continues to deport people under an 18th-century wartime authority.

U.S. District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney handed down the directive in a Monday minute order after lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit over the weekend and emergency motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on behalf of two anonymous men, identified as D.B.U. and R.M.M., who are being held at the Denver Detention Contract Facility in the Mile High City.

Lawyers for the ACLU say the two Venezuelans are at “imminent risk of removal” under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA), which is being used by the Trump administration to justify its mass deportations of Venezuelan men that it claims are members of Tren de Aragua (TdA) — without due process or proof, the ACLU says.

The Colorado filing marks the third time a federal suit has been filed by the ACLU over the government’s use of the AEA. The group is also leading a prominent case in Washington, D.C., overseen by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, and another in Texas.

The Trump administration over the weekend continued to defy an order from the U.S. Supreme Court instructing the government to provide details about the steps it had taken to “facilitate” the return of a Maryland resident mistakenly deported under the AEA to a notorious work prison in El Salvador. The Department of Justice asserted Sunday in court filings that under the high court’s order — which largely affirmed a lower-court ruling — it was not required to work with Salvadoran officials to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, so long as the government removed “any domestic obstacles” that would otherwise impede it from happening.

In a seven-page filing, the administration argued that federal courts do not have the authority to direct the administration to engage with the government of El Salvador at all, setting the stage for what is likely to be another eventual showdown at the Supreme Court. The Justice Department further asserted that interpreting the term “facilitate” to require any additional action on behalf of the administration would not be “tenable — or constitutional.”

Since last week, the government has refused to provide any additional information on Abrego Garcia’s status other than to notify a U.S. District Court in Maryland that he was alive and in El Salvador, despite the court requiring daily status reports regarding his return to the country.

Trump on Saturday evening stated that the fate of Abrego Garcia and all of the “barbarians” deported without due process through the AEA was up to El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele.

On Monday, Trump met with Bukele at the White House and took questions about Abrego Garcia’s situation, per NPR.

Both he and Bukele tried claiming that their country’s hands were tied when pressed by reporters about why Abrego Garcia couldn’t be brought back to the United States.

“The question is preposterous,” Bukele said. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”

Asked why the U.S. wasn’t complying with the Supreme Court’s order, Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins: “How long do we have to answer this question? Why don’t you just say, ‘Isn’t it wonderful that we’re keeping criminals out of our country?’ Why can’t you just say that?”

The two men suing in Colorado are described as a 32-year-old, who is D.B.U., and a 25-year-old, identified as R.M.M., with each of them being arrested at separate times over the past few months. ACLU lawyers say D.B.U. — who has allegedly never been charged with a crime — was nabbed by federal agents in January during a “high-profile raid of a party” that was allegedly characterized in the media as a “Tren de Aragua party,” per the ACLU’s TRO motion.

“Upon his arrest, D.B.U. was interrogated about his alleged affiliation with Tren de Aragua,” the filing said. “He has a single tattoo, his niece’s name, unrelated to Tren de Aragua. Because of his tattoos, and the public assertion that he is affiliated with Tren de Aragua, D.B.U. fears that he will be removed under the Proclamation. He strongly disputes, however, that he is a member of the TdA.”

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According to the ACLU, agents arrested R. M. M last month while he was standing outside a Colorado residence with several other individuals, who were also taken into custody. Authorities claimed he was a TdA member.

“R.M.M. fled Venezuela after two members of his family were killed by Tren de Aragua,” the ACLU said in its TRO motion. “R.M.M. is not and has never been a member of Tren de Aragua. R.M.M. has tattoos — his mother’s name, his birth year, a pattern, a religious symbol, and a character from the board game Monopoly — but they have nothing to do with Tren de Aragua.”

R.M.M. has told the ACLU that he was simply trying to meet a “prospective buyer for his vehicle” at a public meeting place when his arrest went down.

“In the absence of a TRO, Petitioners are at imminent risk of summary removal to places, such as El Salvador, where they face life-threatening conditions, persecution, and torture,” the ACLU said in its motion. “That easily constitutes irreparable harm. And Petitioners may never get out of these prisons.”

Sweeney, a Joe Biden appointee, said Monday in her minute order that the ACLU must serve the Trump administration with a copy of the TRO motion and accompanying papers, along with a copy of her order, to the DOJ “no later than today, April 14.”

Sweeney ordered the DOJ to enter notices of appearances and respond to the TRO motion by Thursday, April 17. She scheduled a hearing on the matter for Monday, April 21, at the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse in downtown Denver.

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