A legal firm with deep financial ties to George and Alexander Soros’s network of left-wing organizations is behind a lawsuit attempting to block President Donald Trump from deporting illegal alien gang members under the Alien Enemies Act.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport nearly 300 illegal alien gang members to El Salvador under an agreement with President Nayib Bukele. The deal allows the United States to send foreign gang members to a mega-prison in the country for an annual fee. The deportees include members of Tren de Aragua and MS-13, both designated terrorist organizations.
Shortly after the deportations began, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit to stop the process. The lawsuit, brought on behalf of five illegal aliens accused of gang affiliations, challenges the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to justify their removal.
A federal judge has since ordered the administration to halt such deportations. However, according to officials, the deportation flights had already landed in El Salvador before the ruling was issued.
Democracy Forward, one of the legal groups behind the lawsuit, has significant financial ties to the Soros network. The firm’s client list includes left-wing organizations such as the Center for American Progress, National Immigration Law Center, Color of Change, UnidosUS, Common Justice, and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.
The Open Society Foundation, chaired by Alexander Soros, has provided substantial funding to these groups. In 2023, the foundation awarded Color of Change a $3 million grant, having previously given the organization $1.5 million in 2018 and 2019. Additionally, the Center for American Progress, considered the unofficial policy wing of the Democrat Party, received nearly $4 million from the Open Society Foundation in 2023 alone. Other Soros-backed groups involved in the lawsuit have received millions in funding as well.
Democracy Forward and the ACLU are now pushing a federal court to determine whether the Trump administration violated the judge’s order to halt deportations.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the administration complied with the law, noting that the deportations were completed before the order was issued.
“The written order and the administration’s actions do not conflict,” Leavitt said. “Moreover, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear—federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion.”
She also dismissed the lawsuit’s legitimacy, stating, “A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.”
