A federal judge in Texas ruled that President
The decision Thursday marks the biggest setback yet for Trump’s effort to unilaterally deport suspected gang members under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which he invoked in a March 15 presidential proclamation that triggered a wave of
US District Judge
“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 said in the ruling.
The ruling is the first on the merits of Trump’s effort to invoke the AEA to send Venezuelan nationals that the administration alleges are members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The judge didn’t block the administration from deporting individuals under other laws that are commonly used in such situations, namely the Immigration and Nationality Act.
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White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement that the judge’s ruling “is undoubtedly shocking to the over 77 million Americans who gave President Trump a decisive Election Day mandate to enforce our immigration laws and deport terrorist illegal aliens — and yet time and again we see federal courts try to stop the President from exercising his lawful authorities to protect the American people.”
Vice President
“We’re aggressively appealing this stuff,” Vance said. “We do think that the higher appeals courts, and in particular, the Supreme Court, is going to recognize immigration enforcement is a core function of the President of the United States. If you tell the president he’s not allowed to deport illegal criminals, then you’re telling the President he’s not allowed to be the president. We reject that.”
Venezuelan immigrants across the US who face potential deportation have been arguing since March that Trump’s AEA proclamation was unlawful because the US isn’t at war. Many have also denied being gang members, including a Maryland man who was deported under the AEA to his native El Salvador in violation of an earlier immigration court order.
Attorney
A representatives of the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Rodriguez said Trump’s March 15 proclamation fails to describe conduct that falls under the meaning of the word “invasion” for the purposes of invoking the AEA.
Trump’s order “makes no reference to and in no manner suggests that a threat exists of 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,” the judge wrote.
The judge also said the proclamation “falls short” of describing a predatory incursion as the concept was understood when the law was passed more than two centuries ago. Previously, the AEA had only been used during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.
“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 said.
The US Supreme Court has weighed in twice in these legal fights — most recently to pause deportations from a detention facility in central Texas — but not on the underlying question of Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act. Earlier, a majority of justices held that these cases had to be brought individually in the court jurisdictions where detainees are held, spurring a new round of lawsuits across the country.
The case is J.A.V. v. Trump,
(Updates with comment from Vice President JD Vance.)
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Steve Stroth, Peter Jeffrey
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