A federal appeals court ruled that President Donald Trump illegally invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan illegal immigrants believed to be involved in the Tren de Aragua gang.
In a 2-1 decision, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from using the wartime law to remove the suspended TdA members from the United States.
“A country’s encouraging its residents and citizens to enter this country illegally is not the modern-day equivalent of sending an armed, organized force to occupy, to disrupt, or to otherwise harm the United States,” the court wrote. “There is no finding that this mass immigration was an armed, organized force or forces. It is an action that would have been possible when the AEA was written, and the AEA would not have covered it. The AEA does not apply today either.”
“We declare, as did the Supreme Court, that our injunction solely applies to the use of the war-related federal statute and does not impede use of any other statutory authority for removing foreign terrorists,” the decision stated.
“We accept the finding that drug-trafficking is being used as a weapon, but we hold it is not within even an updated meaning of invasion or predatory incursion,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick.
In May, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 against the attempt to expedite deportations of Venezuelan nationals under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The Court determined that providing detainees with only 24 hours’ notice and insufficient information to challenge their removal violated constitutional due process rights.
President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act in March, writing in a proclamation that the organization is “perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.”
“Evidence irrefutably demonstrates that TdA has invaded the United States and continues to invade, attempt to invade, and threaten to invade the country; perpetrated irregular warfare within the country; and used drug trafficking as a weapon against our citizens,” the proclamation read.
