U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg declined to lift a restraining order barring the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans.
Boasberg noted President Trump’s “unprecedented use of the Act outside of the typical wartime context” in signing an order that allowed the removal of any Venezuelan suspected of being a member of the Tren de Aragua gang.
The Hill reports:
“Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on another equally fundamental theory: before they may be deported, they are entitled to individualized hearings to determine whether the Act applies to them at all,” Boasberg wrote.
“Because the named Plaintiffs dispute that they are members of Tren de Aragua, they may not be deported until a court has been able to decide the merits of their challenge.”
Boasberg noted the Trump administration is still free to deport Venezuelans through regular immigration authorities.
“The Order did not prevent Defendants from removing anyone — to include members of the class — through other immigration authorities such as the [Immigration and Nationality Act]. Indeed, as previously mentioned, those affiliated with Tren de Aragua were all already deportable under that statute as members of an [Foreign Terrorist Organization],” he wrote.
The order comes amid a separate legal battle in the case to determine whether the Trump administration violated a court order from Boasberg directing any flights taking the migrants to a Salvadoran prison be halted or turned around.
