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McALLEN — A federal judge in South Texas on Friday extended a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Trump Administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans detained in the Southern District of Texas.

The decision from U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez came at the request of attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union representing three Venezuelans who were facing deportation and secured a temporary restraining order halting their removal on Wednesday.

During a hearing on Friday, the judge extended the restraining order until April 25 and expanded it to include other detained Venezuelans in the Southern District of Texas — whether detained in federal or state facilities — and other Venezuelans in the district who could be subject to deportation under the Alien Enemies Act.

The Southern District includes the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Corpus Christi, Houston and Galveston.

An attorney representing the Trump Administration said they were not aware if there were other Venezuelans in the area who could be subject to deportation. The judge ordered the administration to provide a number by the next hearing, scheduled for April 24.

The three Venezuelans in the case were set to be the first to be deported after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to resume deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. But the justices ruled that immigrants targeted under the act are entitled to the opportunity to challenge their deportation in court and must receive proper notice to do so.

The administration’s attorney said the administration was still reviewing the court’s order and was not prepared to state how much notice they would provide migrants of their pending removal.

The men, who were detained in Pennsylvania, California, and New York, were transferred to the El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville.

Rodriguez temporarily halted their removals after attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Texas stepped in, filing an emergency lawsuit on Wednesday to stop the removals and asking the judge to rule on whether it was lawful for the Trump Administration to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport people.

The judge also granted the ACLU’s request to stop the government from removing other Venezuelans detained at El Valle who could be subject to removal under the act, which dates back to 1798 and gives the president the authority to imprison and deport noncitizens of the U.S. during times of war. It was last used during World War II.

While the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela, the Trump Administration issued a proclamation last month invoking the Alien Enemies Act, claiming the U.S. faced threat of invasion by members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that the administration designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

The government claims the three detained Venezuelans are members of the gang but their attorneys deny that.

Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

AUSTIN – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will run for a fourth term of his influential role as lieutenant governor, he announced Friday, touting his first endorsement from President Donald Trump.

Patrick said a more formal kickoff would follow the Legislative session, but that he wanted to make his intentions “known and official.”

“The campaign will begin soon enough, but with seven weeks still to go in the Legislative Session, my focus remains on the work to be done at the Capitol for the people of Texas,” he said in a statement.

The lieutenant governor, who presides over the state Senate, has used his bully pulpit to advance a conservative agenda that has included stricter border enforcement, increasing the role of religion in schools and property tax cuts.

The 75-year-old former radio host served two terms as a state senator from Harris County before he unseated three-term incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in 2014.

Patrick has been a close ally to Trump, who praised Patrick for his contributions as the Texas Chair of his presidential campaigns since 2016.

“In his next Term, Dan will fight tirelessly alongside of us to Secure the Border, Stop Migrant Crime, Grow the Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Champion School Choice, Support our Great Military/Vets, Restore American Energy DOMINANCE, and Strongly Protect our always under siege Second Amendment,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform.

Among those who identify as conservative, 33% of 1,200 registered voters polled by the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Polling Project in February approved strongly of Patrick’s performance, while another 34% somewhat approved. Among voters of all ideologies — conservative, moderate and liberal, 37% approved of Patrick’s job performance.

Patrick is unlikely to face credible opposition, said Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Polling Project.

Tyler Norris, a Republican political consultant, agreed that given Patrick’s political prowess, no significant opposition was expected.

“The degree to which he can accomplish his agenda changed the shape of the senate and Texas politics,” he said. “By the end of next term he will definitely be the most powerful lieutenant governor in Texas history, if he’s not already. From 2015 to today, he’s built a Senate that works extremely efficiently.”

Patrick is already one of the longest serving lieutenant governors in state history — ranking alongside Ben Ramsey as the third-longest. At the end of another four-year term, he’ll be the second longest-serving lieutenant governor.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports that Dallas-area international students are struggling to navigate why they were told to leave the country immediately after visas were suddenly revoked by federal officials, lawyers working with some of them said. In some instances, the students had faced criminal charges but those charges were dismissed, the lawyers said. The lawyers — criminal defense attorney Bruce Anton and immigration attorney Stefka Stoyanova — said they are working with several students who had their visas revoked. They declined to share the students’ names because of privacy concerns. At least 110 international students at Texas universities had visas terminated by U.S. government officials as of Thursday afternoon, according to university administrators.

Locally, students from University of North Texas (27), the University of Texas at Arlington (27), the University of Texas at Dallas (19) and Texas Woman’s University (6) had visas revoked, university administrators confirmed. Officials from Southern Methodist University said some students were affected but didn’t release numbers. Texas school officials did not release details of the students’ names, backgrounds or reasons why the federal database that tracks their statuses terminated the records, signaling that the students’ statuses changed. Federal privacy laws limit what information schools can share. “They’re panicked,” said Anton, who said he has five former clients he is assisting. “They’re in absolute panic.” They are among hundreds across the country who had their statuses suddenly changed in recent weeks, according to local and national media reports. The revocations come as President Donald Trump’s administration vows to crack down on immigration and on student protests over the war in Gaza, such as the ones in Texas last year.

WASHINGTON – The San Antonio Express-News reports that U.S. Rep. Chip Roy backed down on Thursday from his promise to vote against a Senate budget resolution, saying he had gotten assurances from President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders that the final budget would include trillions of dollars in spending cuts. The turnaround came a day after Roy, R-Austin, criticized the Senate budget bill as failing to reduce spending to match proposed tax cuts, likely resulting in a $3 trillion increase in the federal deficit.

In a post of X Thursday, Roy said Trump had assured him on $1 trillion in cuts to mandatory spending programs included in former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and to Medicaid. He also said House Speaker Mike Johnson guaranteed him that the tax cuts central to Trump’s budget plan would be tied to a reduction in spending and that Senate Majority Leader John Thune had committed to a minimum of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. “I would have preferred we amended the Senate bill to reflect these commitments. But, in the interest of comity, I will take them at their word,” Roy wrote. “But, to be clear, failure to achieve these baselines including deficit neutrality will make it impossible for me to support a final reconciliation product.” After delaying a vote Wednesday, House Republicans passed the Senate budget resolution 216-214, with just two Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Victoria Spartz, R-Ind. — voting against it. Now the Senate and House Republicans must do the hard work of deciding what’s in and what’s out of the federal budget, which they can pass without any Democrats’ support through the reconciliation process.