Federal appeals court denies Trump administration’s request to throw out a ban on Salvadoran deporations

Venezuelan immigrants now being held in Colorado will remain protected from deportation to El Salvador after a federal appeals court refused a government request to reverse a federal judge’s ban on their movement.

U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte Sweeney ruled last week that about 100 Venezuelans detained at the GEO Detention Center in Aurora – who could be subject to deportation to a prison abroad under the Alien Enemies Act – need to stay put in Colorado.

Lawyers from the ACLU of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network filed the petition to halt removals to El Salvador, citing the lack of due process and the fact the government is alleging many of the detainees were gang members, when they actually aren’t.

They prevailed – at least for about 12 days.

U.S. Department of Justice attorneys fought the temporary order, calling it “flawed from top to bottom,” and asked the higher Colorado-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift it. They argued the two main plaintiffs, representing a larger provisional class of people up to 100, are not currently being considered for deportation to El Salvador and their claims were speculative.

But a two-page ruling issued Tuesday by Circuit Judges Harris Hartz, Gregory Phillips and Joel Carson, said the government didn’t meet the burden of proof to pause Sweeney’s temporary restraining order. 

They said the government didn’t convincingly argue that it would suffer “some possibility of irreparable harm” because all of the members of the class are already in federal custody. That’s a version of Sweeney’s original response that she could find no harm to the government if the detainees were simply held for now while the case is argued.

The appellate judges also called the fight the Administration is having with civil rights lawyers over the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act “important” and “unresolved.” They noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that no one in a case they took up in an overnight ruling from Texas was to be removed under the Alien Enemies Act until further order from that court.

“There is no realistic possibility that the government could remove any member of the class from this country before final expiration of the Temporary Restraining order on May 6, 2025,” they wrote.

The ACLU is seeking a longer injunction on this case, meaning they hope for a longer ban on any deportations to El Salvador for Colorado-based detainees in Aurora. Sweeney is expected to rule on that next month.

President Donald Trump has invoked the 18th Century Alien Enemies Act as an emergency measure to expel Venezuelans he claims are part of an invading wave of gang members. The U.S. is not at war with Venezuela.