In ex parte order, judge blocks accused Venezuelan gangster's removal to El Salvador prison

A federal judge in Riverside cited a days-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday to temporarily block U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from sending a Venezuelan man to an El Salvador mega-prison.

Removals to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, have provoked intense litigation over President Donald Trump's policy of denying process to those accused of gang membership.

Even so, U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes of Riverside, a President Joe Biden appointee, granted Yostin Sleiker Gutierrez-Contreras' application for appointment of counsel and for a temporary restraining order while she considers his habeas corpus petition.

Sykes noted that on April 7 the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling 5-4 against Trump, held that those detained under the Alien Enemies Act "must receive notice...that they are subject to removal" and that the notice must give them time "to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs." Trump v. J.G.G., 24A931 (S. Ct., filed March 28, 2025).

Sykes acted after ICE agents confined Gutierrez-Contreras, based on his tattoo, as a suspected Tren de Aragua gang member -- she noted that he "vigorously disputes" the gang affiliation -- at Desert View Annex immigration detention facility in Adelanto.

Both the judge and Gutierrez-Contreras' relatives moved fast to save him from immediate removal.

On Monday, Gutierrez-Contreras told his public defender that ICE had planned to remove him to El Salvador. On Wednesday, the judge wrote, "the undersigned was notified by the petitioner's family that the petitioner had told them, at approximately 4:00 a.m. by phone, that ICE was planning on moving him from Desert View Annex to an unknown location." Gutierrez-Contreras v. Warden et al., 5:25-cv-00911 (C.D. Cal., filed April 14, 2025).

Sykes acknowledged that the process was unusual because she was operating ex parte, or without input from the government. "Ex parte applications are 'rarely justified,'" she wrote, citing language from a prior case that said such applications are called for only when irreparable prejudice will occur through no fault of the applicants. She found that condition exists in Gutierrez-Contreras' case.

The plight of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, wrongly deported to El Salvador, shows that in such cases, "a substantial likelihood exists that the individual could not be returned to the United States," Sykes wrote, citing the government's argument in a that high profile case that a district court lacks the power to compel the executive branch to return an erroneously removed alien to the United States. Abrego Garcia v. Noem, 25-1345 (4th Cir., op. filed April 7, 2025).

But she pointed out that: "A federal court has the power under the All Writs Act to issue injunctive orders in a case even before the court's jurisdiction has been established."

Speed is critical. On Thursday, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said through a spokeswoman, "The Supreme Court made it clear that individuals subject to the Alien Enemies Act must receive sufficient notice to seek judicial review, but the government is resisting that and has said they may give as little as 24-hours' notice."

Gelernt is the deputy director of the ACLU's immigrants' rights project. He is one of the lawyers who filed Trump v. J.G.G. on behalf of five Venezuelan men threatened with removal.

Federal public defenders involved did not return messages seeking comment. A message to Sykes' chambers went unanswered. An ICE spokesperson said the agency could not answer questions without knowing Gutierrez-Contreras' "A number" and date of birth.