Trump invokes 1798 Alien Enemies Act, orders deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members
President Trump on Saturday invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to order the swift detention and deportation of all Venezuelan migrants suspected of being members of the Tren de Aragua prison gang, treating them like wartime enemies of the U.S. government.
In his proclamation, the president argued the Venezuelan gang was "perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States," the legal threshold for invoking the 227-year-old war authority.
The president directed the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice to "apprehend, restrain, secure, and remove every" Venezuelan migrant, 14 or older, who is deemed to be part of Tren de Aragua and who lacks U.S. citizenship or permanent residency.
Those subject to the law would be eligible to be summarily arrested, detained and deported, without any of the due process protections outlined in U.S. immigration law, which include opportunities to see a judge and request asylum. Instead, they would be treated as enemy aliens and processed under America's wartime laws.
But Mr. Trump's directive was dealt an almost immediate blow on Saturday, after a federal judge agreed to block the government from deporting anyone in U.S. immigration custody subject to the president's Alien Enemies Act proclamation.
At the request of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, James Boasberg, chief judge for the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked those deportations through a 14-day temporary restraining order. Deportation flights in the air with deportees subject to Mr. Trump's decree should return to the U.S., Boasberg indicated during a hearing Saturday evening.
Earlier Saturday, Boasberg issued another order blocking the deportation of five Venezuelan migrants in immigration detention who the ACLU said were at risk of being expelled under Mr. Trump's directive.
"We are thrilled the judge recognized the severe harm our plaintiffs would face if removed," said Lee Gelernt, the ACLU attorney leading the lawsuit against Mr. Trump's proclamation. "The President's use of the Alien Enemies Act is flat out lawless."
The Justice Department forcefully denounced the court order. "Tonight, a DC trial judge supported Tren de Aragua terrorists over the safety of Americans. TdA is represented by the ACLU," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. "This order disregards well-established authority regarding President Trump's power, and it puts the public and law enforcement at risk."
As Mr. Trump's proclamation was litigated in Washington, the U.S. deported more than 260 migrants to El Salvador over the weekend, including Venezuelans with alleged ties to Tren de Aragua. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele posted a video showing some of the deportees being escorted by armed soldiers and police, having their heads shaved and marched into a prison.
A senior administration official said 137 of the 261 deportees sent to El Salvador were alleged Venezuelan gang members expelled under the Alien Enemies Act. Another 101 Venezuelans were deported under regular immigration law, the official said. The group, the official added, also included 21 Salvadorans accused of MS13 gang membership and two "special cases" that Bukele described as gang leaders wanted by El Salvador's government.
In a filing on Sunday, the Justice Department said the alleged Venezuelan gang members "had already been removed from United States territory" under the Alien Enemies Act before the court order barring the expulsions.
The White House denied it had defied the judge's order. "The Administration did not 'refuse to comply' with a court order," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. "The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist (Tren de Aragua) aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory."
Leavitt added, "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."
Mr. Trump's extraordinary order is breathtaking in its scope and has little precedent in U.S. history. The law it cites, enacted 22 years after the Declaration of Independence, references invasions and incursions staged by "any foreign nation or government."
The centuries-old statue has been invoked only a few times in American history, including during World War I and World War II, when U.S. officials cited it to surveil and detain foreigners from Italy, Germany and Japan.
But never before has the Aliens Enemies Act been invoked to target migrants from countries with which the U.S. is not actively at war or with the premise that a non-state actor is staging an invasion or incursion of the U.S.
Mr. Trump in his order argued Tren de Aragua is "closely aligned" with the repressive government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
"(Tren de Aragua) has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime's goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States," Mr. Trump said in his order.
