Federal Judge Halts Trump's Move To Use Alien Enemies Act To Deport Venezuelans

When it’s a federal crime, an individual is facing what they call ‘straight time,

Pazen said

All such members of TdA are a danger to the public peace or safety of the United States,

he said

Summary detentions and deportations under the law conflict with contemporary understandings of equal protection and due process,

the Brennan Center said

This theory appears to be unprecedented and has not been subject to judicial review,

the Congressional Research Service said

Invoking it in peacetime to bypass conventional immigration law would be a staggering abuse,

the Brennan Center for Justice wrote

The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States,

he added

Letitia Jamesnew York Attorney General

Invoking the Alien Enemies Act, an extraordinary wartime power with a shameful history, to arbitrarily detain and deport immigrants is bigoted, dangerous, and profoundly unjust,

said New York Attorney General Letitia James

It may be the administration's most extreme measure yet, and that is saying a lot,

said Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project and lead counsel

The Trump administration's intent to use a wartime authority for immigration enforcement is as unprecedented as it is lawless,

said Lee Gelernt, of the American Civil Liberties Union

The United States is not at war, nor has it been invaded. The president’s anticipated invocation of wartime authority — which is not needed to conduct lawful immigration enforcement operations — is the latest step in an accelerating authoritarian playbook,

Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, wrote in a statement

Two of the eight individuals who were taken into custody were involved in a July shooting at one of the specific properties in the city that have experienced issues with TdA activity,

according to a statement

I proclaim that all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of TdA, are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies,

Trump wrote in his order

I’ll invoke immediately the Alien Enemies Act to remove all known or suspected gang members, the drug dealers, the cartel members from the United States, ending the scourge of illegal alien gang violence once and for all,

Trump said during a 2023 campaign speech in Dubuque, Iowa

There are already laws that allow for mass detention. There are already laws, like the Laiken Riley Act, that would broaden the dragnet of people who can be detained,

Macedo do Nascimento said

This law shouldn’t be invoked because migration is not an invasion, and we’re not in a war time,

said Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, the deputy director of federal advocacy for United We Dream, an immigrant rights organization

By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to US soil, including our cities and inner cities,

he said in his inaugural address

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 lawsuit stated

Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.”

In a presidential proclamation issued on Saturday, the White House said

The government’s proclamation would allow agents to immediately put noncitizens on planes without any review of any aspect of the determination that they are alien enemies,

the lawsuit added

Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA,

Trump's statement reads