Twenty-six attorneys general have filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit detailing their support for the deportation of Venezuelan gang members.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and South Carolina Attorney General Alan are leading twenty-four other states in the filing. States joining Virginia and South Carolina include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
“President Trump’s recent executive order uses constitutional and statutory authority to deport Venezuelan citizens who are members of TdA and are not American citizens or lawful permanent residents,” the filing says, arguing that the order to halt the deportation effort “undermines the security of the States.”
“[W]hen President Trump endeavored to remove violent TdA members from the United States, a single district court judge prevented him from carrying out that mission anywhere in the country, allowing TdA to continue its operations, and criminal activity, in Amici States,” the attorneys general wrote. “The public interest weighs in favor of the safety and security of American citizens.”
The AGs added that the court “erred by failing to afford the President proper deference in his exercise of his statutory and constitutional powers.”
“The core duty of government is to protect its citizens. The President, acting within his constitutional and statutory authority, did just that by ordering the removal of TdA gang members who have no legal right to be in this country and pose a direct threat to Americans’ safety,” Miyares said of the brief. “TdA is a violent transnational criminal organization responsible for heinous crimes across the United States. The law is clear, and so is our position.”
U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg issued an order Saturday stopping the deportation flights of Venezuelan gang members. The order followed President Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act to remove those involved in the gang.
