Members of Tren de Aragua, the notorious Venezuelan gang, staged a rebellion at an ICE detention facility late last month, barricading themselves and threatening to take hostages or harm officers, the government revealed in filings with the Supreme Court on Monday.
The 23 migrants also clogged toilets to try to flood their housing unit, said Joshua Johnson, the Dallas-area field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He said all 23 are members of TdA.
They were all transferred on May 4 to another detention center, but he said there are still fears that the gang will be able to recruit other migrants from within detention. He said that’s how TdA first grew inside Venezuela’s prison system.
“Keeping them in ICE custody where they could potentially continue to recruit new TdA members poses a grave risk to ICE personnel; other, nonviolent detainees; and the United States as a whole,” Mr. Johnson said.
He made his plea as part of a new filing with the Supreme Court where the Trump administration asked the justices to allow ICE to resume deporting TdA members being held in northern Texas.
Under a previous Supreme Court order, none of them can be booted right now — even if an immigration judge has already ordered them removed, or if they are recent border arrivals subject to a speedy deportation process known as expedited removal.
While deportations under the Alien Enemies Act remain controversial, Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the high court that there are a number of TdA suspects that could be removed under the regular immigration law, but for the court’s blockade.
He said the justices’ actions mean ICE is forced to detain TdA members in its facilities, risking empowering the gang.
Mr. Sauer said the justices had acted even before lower courts had sorted out important issues, such as a class action designation protecting Venezuelans.
He said a lower judge has since rejected certifying a class action for the Venezuelans in northern Texas, but the Supreme Court’s blockade still stands despite that.
All told, ICE believes some 176 migrants are covered by the hold order.
