Trump invokes Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to speed up deportations, judge stalls it hours later

Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. This sweeping wartime power would have authorized him to accelerate mass deportations on the grounds that the U.S. was suffering an "invasion" by Venezuelan gangs.

However, just hours later, a federal judge issued an injunction preventing the government from carrying out deportations under the Act. U.S. District Court Chief Judge James E. Boasberg for the District of Columbia stated that he needed to issue the injunction immediately because the government had already been airlifting migrants, newly deemed deportable under President Trump's proclamation, to El Salvador and Honduras for detention there.

Judge Boasberg, in a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Democracy Forward, said at a brief afternoon hearing: "I don't think I can wait any longer, I have to act. A brief delay in the removal [of migrants] is not going to prejudice the government in any way."

Trump's attempt to invoke the centuries-old Act was based on the claim that the Venezuelan prison gang "Tren de Aragua" (TdA) is invading the United States, asserting it is a hostile force acting at the behest of the Venezuelan government. Trump's proclamation stated: "For years, the Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded increasing territorial control to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA. The result is a hybrid criminal-state that is invading and preying upon the United States and posing a significant danger to the American people."

The Act was last used during World War II to mass incarcerate Japanese-American civilians and has only been used twice before in American history, during World War I and the War of 1812. "Tren de Aragua" originated in Venezuelan prisons in the 2010s, its growth coinciding with an economic crisis that led millions of Venezuelans to seek better living conditions. During his presidential campaign, Trump and his allies have turned the gang into a symbol of the supposed threat posed by migrants residing in the U.S. illegally, with the White House formally designating it a foreign terrorist organization last month.

Authorities in several countries, including the U.S., have reported arresting members of "Tren de Aragua," although the Venezuelan government claims to have dismantled the criminal group. Immigration lawyers, noticing the federal government's sudden move to deport Venezuelans whom they otherwise had no legal right to remove, scrambled to file lawsuits to block what they believed was an imminent proclamation. However, the White House later indicated that Trump had actually signed the order invoking the Act on Friday evening.

Judge Boasberg issued a preliminary order at 9:20 a.m. on Saturday blocking the government from deporting five detained Venezuelans listed as plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit, who believed they were about to be deported. The Trump administration appealed the order, arguing that blocking the president's action before it was announced would weaken the executive branch. The Justice Department wrote in its appeal that if the order were allowed to stand, "a district court would have the power to enjoin virtually any emergency national security action upon receipt of a complaint."

Judge Boasberg subsequently scheduled the afternoon hearing to discuss whether to extend his order to all those who might be targeted by Trump's declaration. Assistant Deputy Attorney General Drew Ensign argued that the president has broad latitude to identify threats to the nation and act under the 1798 law. He noted that the U.S. Supreme Court allowed President Harry Truman to continue detaining a German citizen in 1948, three years after World War II ended. "This would severely undermine the president's prerogative," Ensign said of the injunction.

But the ACLU's Lee Gelernt pointed out that the law had only been invoked three times before and argued that Trump did not have the authority to use it against a criminal gang, rather than a recognized nation. Judge Boasberg said that precedent on the issue seemed tricky, but that the ACLU had a reasonable chance of success on the merits of its arguments, so the order was justified. He paused the deportations of the detainees for up to 14 days and scheduled a hearing on the case for Friday.