A federal judge on Saturday temporarily blocked an effort by President Donald Trump to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport suspected members of a Venezuelan gang he has accused of “unlawfully infiltrating” the country. He also ordered any deportation flights carrying those subject to the presidential proclamation to return to the United States.
Trump on Saturday invoked the rarely used wartime authority, accusing Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua of “infiltrating” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime, including its “military and law enforcement apparatus”; perpetuating “irregular warfare” within the United States and using drug trafficking as a weapon against American citizens.
Hours before the White House published Trump’s proclamation, the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit accusing the White House of preparing to imminently deport five Venezuelan men under the Alien Enemies Act.
Chief Judge of the D.C. District Court James E. Boasberg initially issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from deporting the five Venezuelans named in the lawsuit for at least 14 days.
Boasberg has now expanded the decision to apply to “all non-citizens in U.S. custody” who are subject to Trump’s proclamation.
The Justice Department appealed the decision Saturday night.
The ruling means all Venezuelan citizens 14 years or older who are members of Tren de Aragua, currently in the country and are not naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are to remain in the United States for 14 days or until further order of the court.
“Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off, or is in the air, needs to be returned to the United States,” the judge said. “Those people need to be returned to the United States.”
The judge’s ruling does not apply to individuals who have already been ordered to leave the country for reasons separate from Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, nor does it include individuals who have already landed and disembarked in a foreign country. The judge said once those individuals are off the plane and on the ground in a foreign country, they are no longer in the court’s jurisdiction.
The judge scheduled another hearing on Friday, March 21, for further arguments.
“Today was a horrific day in the history of the nation, when the President publicized that he was seeking to invoke extraordinary wartime powers in the absence of a war or invasion and claiming virtually unlimited authority to remove people from the country,” Skye Perryman, the president of Democracy Forward, said in a statement. “But, tonight the rule of law prevailed. The government has been forced to turn planes around and our lawsuit — filed in the very early hours this morning — has resulted in broad relief.”
During a hearing on Saturday afternoon, the judge was assured by Justice Department lawyers that the five Venezuelans ordered to remain in the country were not currently on deportation flights.
Attorneys for the nonprofit groups challenging Trump’s order told the judge they were aware of flights that had taken off from Texas with other Venezuelans on board, heading to both Honduras and El Salvador.
The judge in response warned the government that it must comply with the court’s order.
“This is something you need to make sure is complied with immediately,” Boasberg said. “These folks are going to be sent to Salvadorian and Honduran prisons, which are not going to be terribly receptive to Venezuelans.”
A source familiar with the migrant deportation flights told NBC News that two flights with Venezuelans onboard were in transit today and will be turned around following the ju