The Trump administration has said, in court documents it didn’t want made public, that it was giving illegal immigrants 12 hours to announce an intent to file a petition against deportation under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA).
In an unsealed document Thursday, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official said revealing the time frame, which kicks in once a deportee is given notice, “could risk circumvention of the law.”
Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Justice for comment via email and contact form Thursday afternoon.
Why It Matters
The time frame for immigrants to seek to avoid swift removal without a court hearing comes amid multiple legal challenges to President Donald Trump’s invocation of the 18th century wartime law to enable mass deportations, including this particular case in Texas, filed by Venezuelan nationals fighting deportation.
What To Know
The filing was written by Carlos D. Cisneros, assistant field office director with ICE in Harlingen, Texas. He wrote that he had examined documentation on the AEA in order to make his declaration to the court in J.A.V. v. Trump—the latest case seeking to prevent individuals being sent to El Salvador’s CECOT prison.
Cisneros outlined what happens when an illegal immigrant—referred to as an alien in filings—is issued with a Form AEA-21B, also included in the court filing. The form, in English, explains why the individual is being deported—namely that they are a confirmed member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
When that notice is given, and read aloud in the immigrant’s language, they are given the chance to make one phone call, Cisneros said.
“Although there may be fact-specific exceptional cases, in a general case, after an alien is served with Form AEA 21-B, the alien is given a reasonable amount of time, and no less than 12 hours, including the ability to make a telephone call, to indicate or express an intent to file a habeas petition,” the official wrote.
“If the alien does not express any such intention, then ICE may proceed with the removal, though such removal may not actually occur for many more hours or days, giving the alien additional time to express an intent.”
Once intent is expressed, the petition must be filed within 24 hours, Cisneros continued; otherwise, the removal can happen anyway. Newsweek understands that the government cut the time frame down, with 24 hours previously being the period for intention to be declared.
The 12-hour window raises questions over whether this is enough time for an immigrant facing removal to challenge the decision, which the U.S. Supreme Court has required.
In its April 7 decision, the court said individuals were entitled to have their day in court, and be given enough notice to request that time.
“The notice must be afforded 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,” the justices wrote, but a specified time frame was not given.
In another AEA case in Colorado earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney said the administration should provide 21 days’ notice to potential deportees.
The Trump administration has argued that federal agents have worked thoroughly to determine whether those already removed under the AEA, or those it is seeking to remove, are members of Tren de Aragua or another gang, MS-13.
The president and his secretaries of Homeland Security and State have said that swift removal is best for national security, following serious and violent crimes committed by alleged TDA members. Questions, and legal challenges, have been raised.
What People Are Saying
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, in a post on X: “This is incredible. It signals open defiance of the Supreme Court, which ruled that the government MUST give people ‘reasonable time’ to be able to ‘actually seek habeas relief’ — to be able to ACTUALLY, not theoretically, sue. 12 hours is not enough for that. Period.”
U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr., in an April 11 temporary restraining order in J.A.V. v. Trump: “The Court finds that maintaining the status quo is required to afford the parties the ability to develop a fuller record for the Court to consider the request for a preliminary injunction and other forms of relief, as presented in the Class Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, and to prevent the immediate and irreparable injury that may occur with the immediate removal of any Venezuelan alien subject to the Proclamation within the jurisdiction of this Court.”
What’s Next
With multiple court cases ongoing related to the use of the AEA, the Trump administration is having to justify its use time and again, with the Supreme Court’s involvement likely not over. For now, some removals under the act remain paused.
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