Federal Court Rules Migrants Have Right to Hearing to Challenge Alien Enemies Act Deportations

A prison guard transfers deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador. Mar. 16, 2025 (El Salvador Presidential Press Office)

 

Yesterday, US district Judge James Boasberg ruled that migrants have a right to a hearing to challenge their deportation under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The Alien Enemies Act is one of the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, the only one still in force. Trump is trying to use it to deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan drug gang. But the Act can only be used in the event of a declared war, or an "invasion" or "predatory incursion" perpetrated by a "foreign nation or government." As explained in my earlier writings about this issue, illegal migration and cross-border drug smuggling do not qualify as an "invasion" or "predatory incursion." Even if they did, they aren't being perpetrated by a "foreign nation or government." Tren de Aragua is a criminal organization, but it is pretty obviously not a "nation or government."