A federal judge Saturday barred the administration of President Trump from deportations under an 18th century law that the president invoked just hours earlier asserting the U.S. was being invaded by a Venezuelan gang and that he had new powers to remove its members from the country.
James E. Boasberg, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said he needed to issue his order immediately because the government was already flying migrants it claimed were newly deportable under Trump’s proclamation to El Salvador and Honduras to be incarcerated there.
“I do not believe I can wait any longer and am required to act,” he said during a Saturday evening hearing in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and Democracy Forward. “A brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm,” Boasberg added, noting they remain in government custody.
The ruling came hours after Trump claimed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was invading the U.S. and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a sweeping wartime authority that allows the president broader leeway on policy and executive action to speed up mass deportations of people — potentially pushing his promised crackdown on immigration into higher gear.
Trump’s declaration targets Tren de Aragua, contending it is a hostile force acting at the behest of Venezuela’s government.
“Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA,” Trump’s statement reads. “The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.”
The act was last used as part of the incarceration of Japanese American civilians during World War II and has been used only two other times in American history, during World War I and the War of 1812. Trump argued in his declaration that it is justified because he contends the Tren de Aragua gang, a common talking point on the campaign trail, has ties to the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump talked about using the act during his presidential campaign, and immigration groups were braced for it. That led to Saturday’s unusual lawsuit, filed before Trump’s declaration even became public. The suit by the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward is on behalf of five Venezuelans whose cases suddenly moved toward deportation in recent hours.
Before the evening hearing, Boasberg agreed to implement a temporary restraining order preventing the deportation for 14 days under the act of the five Venezuelans who are already in immigration custody and believed they were being about to be deported. Boasberg said his order was “to preserve the status quo.” Boasberg scheduled a hearing for later in the afternoon to see if his order should be expanded to protect all Venezuelans in the U.S.
Hours later, the Trump administration appealed the initial restraining order, contending that halting a presidential act before it has been announced would cripple the executive branch.
If the order were allowed to stand, “district courts would have license to enjoin virtually any urgent national-security action just upon receipt of a complaint,” the Justice Department wrote in its appeal.
It said district courts might then issue temporary restraining orders on actions such as drone strikes, sensitive intelligence operations, or terrorist captures or extraditions. The court “should halt that path in its tracks,” the department argued.
The unusual flurry of litigation highlights the controversial law, which could give Trump vast power to deport people in the country illegally. It could let him bypass some protections of normal criminal and immigration law to swiftly deport those his administration contends are members of the gang.
The White House has already designated Tren de Aragua a terrorist organization and is preparing to move about 300 people it identifies as members of the gang to detention in El Salvador.
Riccardi and Weissert write for the Associated Press.
