A federal judge ruled today that the Donald Trump administration's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798 to remove alleged members of a Venezuelan gang from the country is unlawful.
U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr., a Trump appointee, issued a permanent injunction barring AEA-based removals from the Southern District of Texas. Rodriguez found that the Trump administration's March 15 proclamation that the gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) was a terrorist organization perpetrating an "invasion or predatory incursion" of the U.S. under the AEA did not match the historic understanding of the law or its plain text.
"The question that this lawsuit presents is whether the President can utilize a specific statute, the AEA, to detain and remove Venezuelan aliens who are members of TdA," Rodriguez wrote. "As to that question, the historical record renders clear that the President's invocation of the AEA through the Proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute and is contrary to the plain, ordinary meaning of the statute's terms. As a result, the Court concludes that as a matter of law, the Executive Branch cannot rely on the AEA, based on the Proclamation, to detain the Named Petitioners and the certified class, or to remove them from the country."
