President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 To order the rapid detention and expulsion of all the Venezuelan migrants suspected of being members of the gang of the prison of Tren of Aragua, treating them as enemies in wartime of the American government.
In his proclamationThe president argued that the Venezuelan gang “perpetrated, tried and threatened an invasion or a predatory foray against the territory of the United States”, the legal threshold to invoke the 227-year war authority.
The president ordered the departments of internal security and justice to “apprehend, retain, secure and remove each” Venezuelan migrant, 14 years or more, which is deemed to be part of Tren of Aragua and which lacks American citizenship or permanent residence.
People subject to the law would be eligible to be briefly arrested, detained and expelled, without any protection of the regular procedure described in American immigration law, which includes opportunities to see a judge and request asylum. Instead, they would be treated as enemy and treated foreigners under American war.
But Mr. Trump’s directive was brought to an almost immediate blow on Saturday after a The federal judge agreed to block the government From the expulsion of anyone in American police custody subject to the proclamation of the President’s extraterrestrial law law.
At the request of a legal action submitted by the American American Liberties Union, James Boasberg, chief judge of the Washington American district court, DC, temporarily blocked these deportations by a temporary prohibition order of 14 days. Expulsion in the air with deportees subject to Mr. Trump’s decree should return to the United States, Boasberg said at a hearing on Saturday evening.
Earlier on Saturday, Boasberg made another prescription blocking the expulsion of five Venezuelan migrants in the detention of immigration which, according to ACLU, risked being expelled under Mr. Trump’s directive.
“We are delighted that the judge has recognized the serious damage that our complainants would be confronted if they were removed,” said Lee Genernt, the ACLU lawyer leading the trial against Mr. Trump’s proclamation. “The use by the President of the Extraterrestrial Enemies Act is without law.”
The Ministry of Justice has forcefully denounced the court order. “Tonight, a DC trial judge supported Tren of Aragua’s terrorists on the security of the Americans. TDA is represented by ACLU,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement. “This ordinance does not take into account the well -established authority concerning the power of President Trump, and it endangers the public and the police.”
While Mr. Trump’s proclamation was disputed in Washington, the United States expelled more than 260 migrants to Salvador during the weekend, including the Venezuelans with alleged ties with Tren of Aragua. Salvador President Nayib Bukele has published a video showing some of the deportees escorted by armed soldiers and police, being shaved and entered a prison.
A senior administration official declared that 137 of the 261 deportees sent to Salvador were presumed members of Venezuelan gangs expelled under the Act respecting extraterrestrial enemies. 101 Other Venezuelans were expelled under the regular immigration law, said the official. The group, added the official, also included 21 salvadoran accused of members of the MS13 gang and two “special cases” that Bukele described as gang leaders sought by the government of El Salvador.
On Sunday, in a file, the Ministry of Justice said that the alleged members of the Venezuelan gangs “had already been withdrawn from the United States territory” under the Act respecting extraterrestrial enemies before the court order with the exception of the expulsions.
The White House denied having challenged the judge’s order. “The administration did not” refuse to comply “to a court order,” said the press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, in a statement. “The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist extraterrestrials (Tren de Aragua) had already been removed from the American territory.”
Leavitt added: “A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign foreign terrorists who were physically expelled from the American soil.”
Mr. Trump’s extraordinary order is breathtaking in his scope and has little precedent in the history of the United States. THE law He quotes, promulgated 22 years after the declaration of independence, invasion references and incursions organized by “any nation or foreign government”.
The statue of centuries has only been invoked a few times in American history, including during the First World War and World War II, when American officials cited it to monitor and hold foreigners of Italy, Germany and Japan.
But never before the law on enemies of extraterrestrials have been invoked to target migrants from the countries with which the United States is not actively at war or with the premise that a non-state actor stages an invasion or an incursion of the United States
Trump, in his order, argued that Tren de Aragua is “closely aligned” on the repressive government of the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
“(Tren de Aragua) has committed and continues to engage in an illegal mass migration to the United States to advance its objectives to harm American citizens, undermine public security and support the Maduro regime to destabilize democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States,” said Trump in his order.
