A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump inappropriately attempted to utilize an 18th-century wartime statute to expedite the deportation of individuals his administration identifies as members of a Venezuelan gang. This marks the second judicial order preventing the administration from using the act to deport immigrants.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the District Court in New York determined that the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 is not applicable to the Tren de Aragua gang since they are not engaging in attacks against the United States. Hellerstein stated, “While TdA might be involved in narcotics trafficking, such actions are criminal in nature, not an invasion or aggressive incursion.”
This is the second such judicial decision within a week. Previously, a judge appointed by Trump in South Texas also ruled against the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport individuals from that area.
Hellerstein’s ruling, which applies in New York City and surrounding areas, is the latest in a long line of judicial setbacks for the Trump administration’s effort to speed deportations of people in the country illegally. The president and his supporters have increasingly complained about having to provide due process for people they contend didn’t follow U.S. immigration laws.
In his ruling, Hellerstein, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, also ruled that the government cannot use the Alien Enemies Act to shortcut the legal process for deportations that Congress has laid out.
A federal judge in Colorado issued a similar ruling late last month on a temporary basis, and several other judges across the country are hearing cases challenging Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act in their jurisdictions. None of the rulings prevent the removal of people in the country illegally under other laws or procedures.
Those follow a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court last month that challenges to Trump’s use of the law have to occur in areas where immigrants are being detained for deportation. The high court unanimously ruled that people held under the Alien Enemies Act had the right to contest their removal in court.
That led the Supreme Court to have to weigh in a second time, in an unusual postmidnight ruling that barred the deportation of people from northern Texas who, the ACLU argued, were about to be shipped out of the country without adequate chance to appeal their designation.
The Trump administration has deported people designated as Tren de Aragua members to a notorious prison in El Salvador where it argues U.S. courts cannot order them freed. Hellerstein referred to the facility as a “notoriously evil jail.”
