“The importance of this ruling cannot be overstated,” said an American Civil Liberties Union attorney. “This is the first court to squarely rule on the fundamental question of whether a wartime authority can be used during peacetime and properly concluded it cannot.”
A federal court in Texas has determined that President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act in deporting migrants is unlawful.
According to CNN, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez of the Southern District of Texas found that Trump had unlawfully invoked the 18th century Alien Enemies Act to expedite deportations. Rodriguez’s decision effectively prohibits the Trump administration from using the law as pretext to quickly deport suspected gang members.
Although other courts are considering similar challenges to Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, the Southern District for Texas is the only one to have concluded that the president overreached and exceeded his authority.
“The Proclamation exceeds the scope of the [Alien Enemies Act] and, as a result, is unlawful,” Rodriguez wrote. “[Trump administration officials] do not possess the lawful authority under the [Alien Enemies Act], and based on the Proclamation, to detain Venezuelan aliens, transfer them within the United States, or remove them from the country.
“Allowing the President to unilaterally define the conditions when he may invoke the [Alien Enemies Act] and then summarily declare that those conditions exist, would remove all limitations to the Executive Branch’s authority under the [Alien Enemies Act], and would strip the courts of their traditional role of interpreting Congressional statutes to determine whether a government official has exceeded the statute’s scope.”
“The Court concludes that the President’s invocation of the [Alien Enemies Act] through the proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful,” Rodriguez said.
“The lawsuit,” Rodriguez wrote, “does not support such a position.”
In earlier hearings, attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union stressed that the Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked thrice in U.S. history; its most recent use was directing the detainment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
While President Trump has repeatedly claimed that gangs like Tren de Aragua are acting at the best of the Venezuelan government, Rodriguez said there was no reason to believe that these activities meet the criteria for either an “invasion” or a “predatory incursion.”
“The Proclamation makes no reference to and in no manner suggests that a threat exists of an organized, armed group of individuals entering the United States at the direction of Venezuela to conquer the country or assume control over a portion of the nation,” Rodriguez wrote. “Thus, the Proclamation cannot be read as describing conduct that falls within the meaning of ‘invasion’ for the purposes of the [Alien Enemies Act].”
Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, told CNN that Rodriguez’s ruling is significant.
“The importance of this ruling cannot be overstated,” Gelernt said. “This is the first court to squarely rule on the fundamental question of whether a wartime authority can be used during peacetime and properly concluded it cannot.”
Sources
Judge bars deportations of Venezuelans from South Texas under 18th Century wartime law
Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act for swift deportations is illegal, Trump-appointed judge rules
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