A federal appeals court on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from deporting suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act.
In a 2-1 decision, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with three illegal immigrants accused of being members of Tren de Aragua. The majority said that the wave of illegal immigrants from Venezuela who have entered the United States in recent years should not be considered an invasion under the terms of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. In March, President Donald Trump invoked the 18th-century law to classify members of Tren de Aragua as alien enemies to be removed under the 227-year-old statute.
“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. There is no finding that this mass immigration was an armed, organized force or forces,” wrote Judge Leslie Southwick.
The case is likely to end up before the Supreme Court.
Judge Andrew Oldham wrote a dissenting opinion criticizing the majority and arguing that federal judges were usurping Trump’s lawful authority.
“The majority’s approach to this case is not only unprecedented — it is contrary to more than 200 years of precedent. It reflects a view of the Judicial power that is not only muscular — it is herculean. And it reflects a view of the Executive power that is not only diminutive — it is made subservient to the foreign-policy and public-safety hunches of every federal district judge in the country,” Oldham wrote.
Oldham said that the danger that Tren de Aragua posed to the United States was clear based on their record of kidnappings, murders, rapes, and theft in the country. The Trump appointee also questioned the practicality of allowing judges to hold up the process of declaring an invasion.
“Does that mean the United States could be beset by a predatory incursion for the entirety of the Trump Administration and that the President would remain powerless to act until given the green light by one or more federal judges?” he wrote.
The Trump administration classified Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization in February, saying that it “has conducted kidnappings, extorted businesses, bribed public officials, authorized its members to attack and kill U.S. law enforcement, and assassinated a Venezuelan opposition figure.”
On Tuesday, Trump announced that the U.S. military took out a boat leaving Venezuela with 11 members of Tren de Aragua allegedly transporting drugs headed for America. The strike took place in international waters.
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