According NBC News, Video from Friday night shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement buses full of Venezuelan migrants headed toward an airport in North Texas before abruptly turning around before the Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration must, for now, refrain from deporting Venezuelan men based in the state under the Alien Enemies Act.
At least 28 detainees — most, if not all, understood to be Venezuelan nationals — were placed on buses Friday evening at ICE’s Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas, and then driven toward Abilene Airport about 30 miles away.
The motorcade — including at least 18 squad cars from various law enforcement agencies with flashing lights along the north Texas highways — left the ICE facility, with some men on board being told they were being deported to El Salvador and some told they were headed to Venezuela, according to the wife of one of the detainees and two lawyers representing other detainees at the facility. Prior to their departure, it was not clear what their destinations would be.
The video, obtained exclusively by NBC News, shows the ICE motorcade pass the airport’s exit and then turn around, looping back to return to the Bluebonnet detention facility.
The Trump administration is seeking to deport the men, who it says are members of the Tren de Aragua gang. It remains unclear whether the government has the authority to apply the Alien Enemies Act to gang members outside of a war situation, and whether adjudications about gang membership are accurate.
The administration has asked the Supreme Court to stop its pause on these would-be deportation flights.
An abrupt turnaround amid Friday's court fight
As the motorcade was headed for the airport, a last-minute federal hearing on the matter was taking place in Washington.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who has been hearing a case related to the flights to El Salvador, scheduled an emergency hearing for Friday evening — just hours after a bus rolled up to Bluebonnet.
Shortly before that hearing kicked off, ACLU attorneys also asked the Supreme Court to step in.
“We hear they are on buses on the way to the airport,” said Lee Gelernt, the lawyer for the ACLU arguing on behalf of detainees on the verge of being deported under the Alien Enemies Act.
Upon learning this information, Boasberg asked Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign to make calls to ensure there were no flights deporting immigrants from Bluebonnet under the Alien Enemies Act on Friday night.
Ensign said he understood there would be no flights Friday night and that he was “not aware of any plans” for flights on Saturday, but that the Department of Homeland Security reserved the right to conduct flights on Saturday.
At the same time, the ICE buses were nearing their approach to the airport exit.
The Supreme Court heard the case overnight, after Boasberg declined to rule in favor of the ACLU lawyers and told them, “I just don’t see really how you’re asking me to do anything different from what the Supreme Court told me I couldn’t do.”
The high court then offered its ruling early Saturday that the administration must halt its deportation flights for now.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security would not comment on who was on the buses or why they turned around. NBC News reached out to DHS and ICE but had not heard back as of Saturday night.
