The Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport Venezuelan immigrants accused of being gang members “exceeds” the scope of the law and runs “contrary to the plain, ordinary meaning” of the wartime statute.
Texas District Judge Fernando Rodriguez, who was appointed by Trump himself, ruled on Thursday that the administration cannot rely on the 18th century law to detain and deport alleged Tren de Aragua members, which is “unlawful.”
The government does “not possess the lawful authority” under the Alien Enemies Act, based on Donald Trump’s proclamation invoking the law for the fourth time in U.S. history, “to detain Venezuelan aliens, transfer them within the United States, or remove them from the country,” according to the judge’s 36-page ruling.
The ruling applies to all targeted immigrants held in his district.
“The historical record renders clear that the president’s invocation of the [Alien Enemies Act] through the Proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute and is contrary to the plain, ordinary meaning of the statute’s terms,” he wrote.
In his proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act last month, Trump stated that “all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of [Tren de Aragua], are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”
The Alien Enemies Act grants authority to the president to remove immigrants during a declared war or if there is an "invasion” or “predatory incursion.”
At least 137 Venezuelans who were targeted under the law were deported from Texas to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center on March 15.
But the government did not show that there exists “an organized, armed group of individuals entering the United States at the direction of Venezuela to conquer the country or assume control over a portion of the nation,” and the administration “falls short” of describing an “invasion” or “predatory incursion,” according to Judge Rodriguez.
“The court ruled the president can’t unilaterally declare an invasion of the United States and invoke a wartime authority during peacetime,” the lead counsel in the case, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, said in a statement. “Congress never meant for this 18th-century wartime law to be used this way. This is a critically important decision that prevents more people from being sent to the notorious CECOT prison.”
Rodriguez’s preliminary injunction delivers a significant blow to the Trump administration’s attempts to swiftly remove immigrants as part of his aggressive “mass deportation operation.”
Any appeal of the decision will head to the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana before moving to the Supreme Court.
The administration has admitted in court filings that “many” of the people sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador did not have criminal records, and attorneys and family members say their clients and relatives — some of whom were in the country with legal permission and have upcoming court hearings on their asylum claims — have nothing to do with Tren de Aragua.
On April 7, a divided Supreme Court agreed to lift a court order that temporarily blocked the president’s use of the wartime law to swiftly deport people from the country while a legal challenge plays out. But the justices said immigrants marked for removal are “entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal” in front of a judge in the district where they are detained.
Following that ruling, lawsuits challenging immigrants’ deportations under the Alien Enemies Act have been filed in several states.
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