In a scathing rebuke of the government’s attempt to deport a Venezuelan couple who is in the country legally, on grounds that they’re TdA members, a federal judge has ordered them to be released Friday.
U.S. District Judge David Briones, a Clinton appointee, also barred the administration from removing anyone under the Alien Enemies Act in the Western District of Texas without giving them 21 days notice.
Under the direction of U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Transportation Command is supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights by providing military airlift, Fort Bliss, Texas, Feb. 10, 2025.
Sgt. Griffin Payne/DoD
Julio Cesar Sanchez-Puentes and Luddis Norelia Sanchez-García, fled Venezuela and entered the U.S. in October 2022 and were released on parole, court documents said. Both applied and were granted Temporary Protected Status in 2024, according to court documents.
The couple was arrested and released twice in March, due to charges stemming from their entry into the U.S, according to court documents.
On April 1, their TPS status was withdrawn because of their alleged “association with a Foreign Terrorist Organization,” but they were given 33 days to appeal the decision and should have been protected from detention, their lawyer argued in court.
On April 16, the couple was again arrested this time at the El Paso International Airport after they had attended a hearing about those charges.
Under the direction of U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Transportation Command is supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights by providing military airlift, Fort Bliss, Texas, Feb. 10, 2025.
Sgt. Griffin Payne/DoD
Briones accused the government of declaring they were members of the gang “without providing this Court with a single piece of meaningful evidence.”
Declarations from ICE officials claimed that during a previous arrest, Sanchez-Garcia had acknowledged that her ex-husband, who she had separated from 10 years ago, was a member of the gang and was killed by the Venezuelan government because of it.
The couple’s attorneys said in a statement that they were released Friday.
“As the Court’s ruling made clear, they should not have been designated ‘alien enemies.’ And the consequences of this designation are drastic,” they said in a statement.”
“If ICE was successful, Cesar would be facing a life sentence in a brutal El Salvadoran prison. Norelia was facing the same at some other unknown location,” they added.
In March, Judge Leonie Brinkema, a Clinton appointee, also slammed the government’s evidence against the couple, claiming she’d throw government lawyers out of her chambers if it were a criminal case.
-ABC News’ Armando Garcia