U.S. District Judge David Briones was blunt with attorneys representing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials after a 90-minute hearing Wednesday on whether a couple from Venezuela should remain in their custody in El Paso.
“You don’t have anything,” Briones said.
“By Friday, (they) are going to be freed. Let’s see what court you are going to next,” Briones said after ending the hearing before closing arguments. He said the arguments weren’t necessary because the government presented no “real evidence” on why the couple should remain in ICE custody. His final ruling will be outlined in his formal final order, which is expected by Friday, he said.
The couple fled Venezuela in 2022 and have been in the United States under parole and temporary protected status.
In their petition of writ of habeas corpus, the couple were asking the court to declare that their detention violates immigration law and their due process – and to order ICE to immediately release them from custody. The petition also asked that ICE no longer detain them so long as the temporary protected status for Venezuelans and for them remained in effect – and that ICE’s allegations are “insufficient to warrant an alien enemy designation.”
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 provides expanded powers during wartime for the deportation of citizens of countries attacking the United States. President Trump invoked the law on March 15 to call for the deportation of Venezuelans with alleged ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, which has been designated a foreign terrorist organization. Deportations under the act remain blocked by a federal judge – one of many ongoing legal challenges in recent weeks over the administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
Cesar, 27, and his wife, Norelia, 34, were detained by ICE agents at El Paso International Airport on April 16 – two days after an El Paso magistrate judge ruled they could remain free of custody while their case on misdemeanor illegal entry charges was heard in June. El Paso Matters is not using the couple’s full names as they fear for their safety if they’re deported to Venezuela.
That was the third time in a span of about eight weeks that a judge ruled the couple should be released from government custody. In March, the couple was detained by ICE at their Washington, D.C., home and again days later while driving in Maryland – and both times judges ordered their release.
“A judge for the fourth time today said what three other judges have said – that they are not to be held by ICE,” Christopher Benoit, one of the couple’s attorneys under the National Immigration Project, told El Paso Matters after the hearing. “We can’t continue to do this – to arrest and detain people without due process.”
After hearing the judge’s comments through a translator, the couple sighed and cried silently as the proceeding came to an end. They hugged each other and their attorneys, thanking them for their work.
The couple’s attorneys said their clients were too “traumatized” to comment on their ordeal, but said they were content with Briones’ ruling.
The couple was in El Paso for an April 14 pretrial hearing on their misdemeanor illegal entry charges – which were filed more than two years after they entered the country through El Paso – and were on their way back to Washington. The couple has three children.
The vast majority of Wednesday’s hearing focused on the testimony of Alfonso Ramirez, assistant director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations El Paso Field Office. He was questioned about how Norelia – and by association, Cesar – came to be labeled as members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and how it was determined that the two should be arrested at the airport and detained in ICE custody.
His responses centered mostly on affidavits filed in the case by ICE agents on which he based his declaration to the court. Ramirez repeatedly stated that his declaration was based on those reports, on databases maintained by several immigration and intelligence agencies, and on his knowledge and experience.
Stopping the hearing before closing arguments, Briones said everything Ramirez testified on was “based on my experience,” or “your understanding” or “from my perspective” – and called the hearing to an end.
Briones said the temporary restraining order he granted April 17 prohibiting the government from removing them from El Paso remains in place until he officially files his final ruling.
Cesar and Norelia were returned to ICE custody in El Paso pending the judge’s orders.
A group of women who are part of Indivisible 915 – the El Paso chapter of a nationwide grassroots organization that opposes “the Trump agenda” – quietly applauded and wished the couple well.
“We’re glad to see justice was done, at least here in this case. It’s nice to see some good news,” said Dee Anne Croucher, a member of the group who attended the hearing to support the couple she’s never met. “We’re very concerned about what’s happening in America – to our friends and neighbors and to people we don’t know but that need our support just the same.”
The post El Paso judge rips ICE over Venezuelan couple’s detention, orders their release appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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