Venezuelans Get Class Certification in Bid to Stop Removal (1)

A Venezuelan national convinced a federal district court to certify a class of noncitizens in custody in her challenge to the US government’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of the Tren de Aragua criminal organization.

Anonymous petitioner M.A.P.S. adequately showed that all noncitizens in custody in the jurisdiction of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, who are subject to the March 2025 Presidential Proclamation concerning Tren de Aragua, can challenge their impending removal from the US as a class, Judge David Briones said Thursday.

This decision comes about a week after the US Supreme Court stopped the government from using the Alien Enemies Act to send about 176 Venezuelans to a Salvadoran prison, because the detainees didn’t receive proper notice.

Notice “roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster,” the Supreme Court said May 16.

President Donald Trump on March 14 invoked the Alien Enemies Act, alleging that Tren de Aragua is perpetrating a US invasion, and proclaimed that all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of the organization must be removed.

M.A.P.S., who is detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is accused of being affiliated with Tren de Aragua, initiated May 10 a habeas action asserting that the president can’t invoke the Alien Enemies Act against a criminal gang, or during peacetime. She sought class certification the same day.

Although “there is no clear guidance from the Supreme Court or the Fifth Circuit on class actions in habeas corpus proceedings,” Briones granted the request, stating that the court has authority to do so under the All Writs Act.

M.A.P.S. also convinced the court that “there are many common questions of law” justifying class certification. And the government agreed that the petitioner and the class share a common claim that the president’s proclamation is invalid, the court said.

M.A.P.S. also satisfied the typicality requirement for a class, because the government’s course of conduct is the same for every proposed member, the court said. Each member faces the same principal injury of removal, based on the same policy—the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, Briones said.

American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and American Civil Liberties Union Foundation represent the petitioner.

The case is M.A.P.S. v. Garite, W.D. Tex., No. 3:25-cv-00171, 5/22/25.