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Judge Halts Trump’s Attempt to Expel Gang Members Using 1798 Alien Enemies Act

March 15, 2025 TruthUSA

The ACLU and Democracy Forward have filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to expedite deportations of Venezuelan nationals.

A federal judge has halted President Donald Trump’s quick deportation efforts of members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

On Saturday, Trump issued a presidential proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act specifically to speed up the deportations of Venezuelan nationals who are 14 years old or older, who are members of Tren de Aragua, and who are not citizens or lawful permanent residents of the United States.

Just hours before Trump issued the proclamation, attorneys for five Venezuelan detainees facing deportation from the United States filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the president’s deportation policy. In response, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, issued an order preventing the deportation of those five plaintiffs named in the lawsuit for a minimum of two weeks while legal proceedings continue.

Later that same Saturday evening, Boasberg issued another order granting class action certification to all noncitizens who would be affected by Trump’s presidential proclamation.

The complaint, filed with support from the ACLU and Democracy Forward, challenges the legality of Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act. The lawsuit specifically mentions that the 1798 law has only been invoked three times before: during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II.

The plaintiffs argued that the Alien Enemies Act “clearly only applies to wartime actions.”

“It cannot be used here against nationals of a country—Venezuela—with whom the United States is not at war, which is not invading the United States, and which has not launched a predatory incursion into the United States,” the complaint stated.

Trump’s proclamation claims that the Venezuelan government has progressively relinquished its authority to the terrorist group Tren de Aragua and other similar transnational criminal organizations, creating what the proclamation called a “hybrid criminal state.”

“Evidence clearly shows that TdA has invaded the United States and continues to invade, attempt to invade, and threaten to invade the country; engaged in irregular warfare within the country; and used drug trafficking to target our citizens,” Trump’s proclamation read.

As part of the effort to expedite the deportations of Tren de Aragua suspects, the Trump administration had also struck a deal to pay the government of El Salvador around $6 million to incarcerate 300 Tren de Aragua suspects and two other individuals with suspected ties to the Salvadoran transnational gang MS-13.

“I do not believe I can delay any longer and must take action,” Boasberg stated during the Saturday evening hearing.

“A short postponement in their removal does not harm the government,” he added.

Boasberg also instructed any deportation planes that were already en route to turn back.

The Trump administration now has until March 17 to file a motion to lift the temporary restraining order on its deportation plans. The plaintiffs will then have until March 19 to respond.

After Boasberg initially halted deportation proceedings against the first five plaintiffs, the Department of Justice argued that allowing such a ruling to stand would imply that any district court could stop almost any urgent national security action upon receiving a complaint.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign argued that the president has broad authority to identify and respond to threats under the Alien Enemies Act. Ensign referenced a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in which the court determined that the 1798 law permitted the detention of a German citizen even after the hostilities of World War II had concluded.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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