On Saturday, a federal judge banned the Trump administration under 18th century law. The president called the US a few hours ago, claiming that the US was being invaded by Venezuelan gangs and that he had new powers to remove its members from the country.
James E. Boasberg, the Supreme Court Justice of the District of Columbia, said the order must be issued immediately as the government claims that already flying immigrants are newly deportable under the declaration to El Salvador and Honduras.
“I don’t think I can wait anymore and need to act,” he said in a lawsuit that the ACLU and democracy advanced at a hearing on Saturday evening. “The short delay in their removal will not cause any harm to the government,” Boasberg added, noting that they remained in government detention.
The ruling comes hours after Trump allegedly claimed that Venezuelan gangster Tren de Aragua had invaded the United States and sparked the Alien Enemy Act of 1798.
Trump argues that Tren de Aragua is a hostile force acting at the Venezuelan government’s request.
“For many years, Venezuela’s national and local governments have been increasingly restrained against territory to cross-border criminal organizations, including the TDA,” Trump’s statement said. “The consequence is a hybrid criminal nation committed invasions and predatory invasions of the United States, poses a great danger to the United States.”
Alien Enemy Law was last used during World War II as part of the imprisonment of Japanese-American civilians, and only two were used in American history during the Second World War and the 1812 war.
Trump spoke about the use of the law during the presidential election, and immigrant groups endured it. It led to an extraordinary lawsuit on Saturday, and was filed before Trump’s declaration was made public. The lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Democrat Forward represents five Venezuelans who suddenly transitioned to deportation in recent hours.
Before the evening hearing, Boasberg agreed to implement a temporary restraining order that would prevent the country’s 14-day deportation based on the actions of five Venezuelans who already had custody of the migrants and believed they were about to be deported. The judge said his order was “to maintain the status quo.” He scheduled a hearing late in the afternoon to see if his orders should be expanded to protect all Venezuelans in the United States.
Hours later, the Trump administration called for an initial restraining order, claiming that halting presidential actions before it was announced would crippling the administrative department.
If the order is granted, “the district court has a license to effectively prohibit emergency national security lawsuits from receiving a complaint,” the Justice Department wrote in its appeal.
The district court then said it could issue temporary restraining orders on actions such as drone strikes, sensitive intelligence reporting work, terrorist capture or extradition. The department argued that the court “should stop that path.”
The unusual gusts of the lawsuit highlight the controversial 227 law, which could empower Trump to illegally deport people from within the country. It allows him to divert some protections of ordinary criminal and immigration laws in order to quickly deport those whom he claims his administration is a gang member.
The White House has already designated Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization, and is preparing to move around some 300 people detained in El Salvador as gang members.
Riccardi and Weissert write for the Associated Press.
