The Alien Enemies Act can’t be used to detain and deport Venezuelan gang members, a federal judge ruled Thursday, delivering a major blow to President Trump’s claims of expansive deportation powers.
Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. said the 1798 law requires either a state of war or an invasion or incursion by agents of an enemy nation.
He said Mr. Trump failed to make the case that Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang in question, fits that description. While Mr. Trump highlighted the dangers the gang poses to the U.S., he didn’t make the case that it is engaged in “an organized armed attack.”
“For these reasons, the court concludes that the president’s invocation of the AEA through the proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful. “Respondents do not possess the lawful authority under the AEA, and based on the proclamation, to detain Venezuelan aliens, transfer them within the United States, or remove them from the country,” ruled the judge, who was appointed to the court in southern Texas by Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump had said he needed the Alien Enemies Act to speed up deportations of members of TdA and MS-13, both transnational gangs that the government has now designated as terrorist organizations.
The administration argues the regular immigration law is too slow to handle those sorts of dangerous cases.
Mr. Trump’s opponents, though, say he’s short-circuiting critical due process rights in his rush to oust people. That includes booting out people whom the government has tied to the gangs based purely on tattoos or social media photos.
Judge Rodriguez’s ruling is confined to the U.S. judicial Southern District of Texas, but it is reverberating nationwide.
Other judges have hinted that Mr. Trump exceeded his powers, but Judge Rodriguez is the first to make that clear finding as a conclusion of law.
The AEA was part of the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, passed in the late 18th Century as the U.S. worried about war with France. Under the AEA, the president can order immediate removal of any noncitizen 14 years or older from a county engaged in war or an “invasion or predatory incursion” against the U.S.
It had been used in connection with the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.
Mr. Trump argued TdA qualifies because it’s acting as an unofficial militia of Venezuela’s Maduro regime, and its members, who streamed into the U.S. under the relaxed border policies of the Biden administration, have spawned mayhem throughout the country.
Judge Rodriguez, in his 36-page ruling, said Mr. Trump has wide latitude to operate under the AEA, but with some limits.
He said Mr. Trump has properly argued Venezuela controls TdA. But the judge said Mr. Trump’s proclamation invoking the AEA for TdA did not prove that it’s part of an invasion or incursion.
“While the proclamation references that TdA members have harmed lives in the United States and engage in crime, the proclamation does not suggest that they have done so through an organized armed attack, or that Venezuela has threatened or attempted such an attack through TdA members,” the judge ruled. “As a result, the proclamation also falls short of describing a ‘predatory incursion’ as that concept was understood at the time of the AEA’s enactment.”
