A federal judge in Texas blocked the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify the deportation of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members.
U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez issued the ruling on Thursday, dealing a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to detain and deport violent illegal aliens to El Salvador.
Rodriguez, who was appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, found the White House’s invocation of the 18th-century wartime law to be “unlawful” because there is no “declared war,” “invasion,” or “predatory incursion” under the statute.
“The historical record renders clear that the President’s invocation of the AEA through the Proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute and is contrary to the plain, ordinary meaning of the statute’s terms,” Rodriguez wrote in a 36-page opinion. “As a result, the Court concludes that as a matter of law, the Executive Branch cannot rely on the AEA.”
The Alien Enemies Act has been used only three times in U.S. history, and all three instances came during officially declared wars: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. Trump invoked the law to remove dangerous illegal aliens from the country, including members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
Tren de Aragua is one of eight Latin American gangs and cartels that the State Department designated as foreign terrorist organizations in February. The Trump administration has vowed to crack down on the criminal groups, which it views as enemies who invaded the U.S. under the Biden administration.
Thursday’s ruling comes nearly a month after the Supreme Court lifted a previous court order that blocked the Alien Enemies Act from being used to expedite mass deportations, although the Court said the administration must give immigrants it seeks to deport “reasonable time” to challenge their removal from the U.S. The 5–4 majority opinion returned the issue back to a lower court in Texas, where the detainees are being held.
Later in April, the Supreme Court temporarily halted new deportations of the Venezuelan aliens held in Texas as an answer to the American Civil Liberties Union’s emergency appeal. Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, taking issue with the brief order’s overnight filing on a Saturday.
“Literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order,” Alito wrote, joined by Thomas.
“I refused to join the Court’s order because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate.”