On a cloudy Saturday in March 2025, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., called an emergency hearing over the fate of more than 100 Venezuelans. The U.S. government had invoked the Alien Enemies Act against them, a wartime law used only three times before in U.S. history.

The Department of Homeland Security was rushing to fly the men out of the country — to a notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador — even though they hadn't had any opportunity to challenge their removal. They never got their day in court. Still, they were loaded onto planes and strapped into their seats with their wrists, waists and ankles in restraints. As they waited on the tarmac, every second counted.

Attorneys from the ACLU, on behalf of the Venezuelan men, and the Department of Justice, on behalf of the Trump administration, squared up for a legal fight. There was no time to resolve it in a courtroom, so they met on a 5 p.m. Zoom conference. Just over an hour later, the judge made a decision. "Any plane containing these folks that is gonna take off or is in the air," he said, "needs to be returned to the United States." However that's accomplished, the judge added, whether that meant turning around a plane or not disembarking anyone on the plane. He also delivered a message directly to the Department of Justice lawyers: The Trump administration needed to comply, immediately.

But that's not what happened. The planes didn't return, and the government deplaned the men at the Center of Confinement for Terrorism (CECOT), a prison in El Salvador known for its documented human rights abuses.

That was the beginning of J.G.G. v. Trump, a case the ACLU filed that cloudy March 15, 2025, and the very first case we delved into on the ACLU's new judicial history podcast, "Let the Record Show." We started here because we recognized that history was being made, in real time.

And since that episode dropped, ACLU attorneys have gone to court twice as a result of this issue. Keep reading to find out what happened on Sept. 25 and Sept. 29, 2026, in two cases challenging the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime law being used during peacetime to speed up deportations without due process.

The latest in J.G.G. v. Trump

In a packed court room on Sept. 29, all 11 active judges of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard intense arguments over whether Trump officials will face consequences for openly defying a federal judge. The focus of this hearing: accountability. During the proceedings, ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project Deputy Director Lee Gelernt, representatives from the DOJ, and the full court debated whether the district court could continue its inquiry into which Trump administration officials should be referred for criminal contempt prosecution for violating the court's order.

"The government's trying to shut down the inquiry by the district court to find out who made the decisions to defy the order," Gelernt said. "We are hoping the court of appeals rules in our favor."

On March 15, the district court ordered that the government not deplane any of the ACLU's clients at CECOT. At that time, the government was stonewalling the court and not providing information about the flights that were winging their way to El Salvador. Hours later, in the middle of the night, the government deplaned the men despite the court's order. The district court has undertaken a limited criminal contempt inquiry to determine whether any Trump administration officials should be referred for criminal contempt prosecution for their actions in violating the court's order. The administration has continued its stonewalling, providing only cursory declarations that do not make clear which officials were responsible for the violation of the order. Accordingly, the district court ordered two DOJ attorneys on the case on March 15, including one former DOJ attorney who provided whistleblower evidence on the violation of the court's order, to testify. The government has sought to shut down that testimony and prevent the district court's inquiry to determine who should be referred for prosecution.

In J.G.G. v. Trump, we challenge President Donald Trump's unlawful invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, a centuries-old wartime act, during peacetime, to accelerate mass deportations. We are representing a class of individuals, more than 100 Venezuelan men, who were removed under this directive on March 15, 2025, to CECOT. The Trump administration alleged they were part of a notorious Venezuelan gang without providing them with any due process or opportunity to contest this allegation. Last June, a federal judge ruled that the removal under the Alien Enemies Act on March 15 was unlawful and ordered the Trump administration to provide the individuals due process to challenge their deportations under the act in court. Yet, Trump officials sent planes to El Salvador anyway. This case focuses on accountability — specifically, whether Trump officials will face consequences for openly defying a federal judge.

This week, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals faced a direct test of executive accountability in two high-stakes J.G.G. v. Trump hearings. The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of D.C. are counsel in this case.

On Sept. 25, a panel of D.C. appellate judges heard arguments on whether the men sent to CECOT without due process are entitled to finally get hearings to have an opportunity to respond to the government's claims that they are gang members and to challenge their removal under the Alien Enemies Act. Gelernt said the Trump administration has admitted that it violated the plaintiffs' constitutional rights but is resisting at every turn providing them with the due process the government denied them.

"They concede we rushed them out, gave them no due process," Gelernt said. "It can't be the end of the game. That would be such an untenable rule for this court to adopt."

The district court held that the Trump administration violated the men's due process rights by sending them to CECOT with no opportunity to challenge their designation as members of the gang under the Alien Enemies Act before being whisked out of the country and deplaned at CECOT in the dead of night. The court ordered the administration to provide information on how it would return those who wished to the United States and ordered that each of the men could file pleadings challenging their designation under the Alien Enemies Act. The government appealed this order and outrageously argues that because it took the men to El Salvador they have no ability to challenge the government's violation of their rights.

Men illegally sent to notorious CECOT prison seek justice

This case seeks to provide justice for people such as Andry Hernandez Romero, a Venezuelan makeup artist and LGBTQ+ asylum seeker who fled Venezuela after experiencing persecution based on his sexual orientation.

In a translated interview with The Bulwark, Hernandez Romero said he had learned about CECOT upon arriving at CECOT. "My first impression was: 'What am I doing here? Why am I here?'" he said. "More than worrying, I was scared, because my fellow companions said that anyone who entered there would never come out."

Hernandez Romero lawfully entered the United States in August 2024. Upon arrival, he was taken into immigration custody and then forcefully disappeared to El Salvador's CECOT prison in March 2025.

Hernandez Romero is one of hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants who were taken from their homes and shipped to CECOT, with no hearing and no review. Hernandez Romero's U.S. immigration case was dismissed and his appeal was denied during the time he was detained in CECOT, despite the persecution he experienced in Venezuela related to his LGBTQ identity.

Hibah Ansari is a content writer and editor for the ACLU. Shereen Marisol Meraji is the host of the ACLU's podcast, "Let the Record Show." For more than 100 years, the ACLU has worked in courts, legislatures and communities to protect the constitutional rights of all people. With a nationwide network of offices and millions of members and supporters, the ACLU takes on the toughest civil liberties fights in pursuit of liberty and justice for all. To find out more about the ACLU and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.

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