A federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump on Saturday from invoking the 18th century Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without a hearing – ordering any flights carrying the supposed criminals to turn around.
US District judge James Boasberg quickly ordered the Trump administration to halt all removals after the commander in chief signed off on a presidential action invoking the 1798 law – aimed at targeting Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, The Washington Post reported.
The chief judge in the District of Columbia said he heard that “flights are actively departing” and directed US officials to have planes in the air carrying migrants returned to the United States, the outlet reported.
“Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States however that is accomplished,” Boasberg reportedly wrote.
“Make sure it’s complied with immediately.”
The temporary ruling will put a 14-day restraining order on use of the wartime act, which the Trump administration hopes to use to deport any migrant it identifies as a gang member without following normal criminal and immigration channels.
A new hearing has been scheduled for Friday as a pause will be put in place for those deported under the Alien Enemies Act.
“I do not believe I can wait any longer and am required to act,” Boasber said during a hearing Saturday night.
“A brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm,” he said, noting that the detainees will remain in government custody.
Boasberg’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward challenging the removal of five Venezuelan men under the centuries-old law — which was reportedly signed on Friday.
Before the early evening ruling blocking the use of the act, an emergency hearing was held Saturday morning. At it the judge barred the removal of the five migrants named in the legal challenge, which Trump’s administration has already appealed.
The Alien Enemies Act has only been used three times before in American history, all during wartime. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the last president to do so following the attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base, dragging the US into World War II.
The act was used by the Democrat’s administration to justify internment camps for people of Japanese, German and Italian descent.
Trump’s proclamation’s language, however, contends the gang is effectively at war with the United States and Venezuelan nationals are now “liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”
“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.
“The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of a predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.”
Tren de Aragua’s origins can be traced back to a Venezuelan prison.
The violent gang’s members are said to have blended in with the millions of Venezuelans who’ve exited the South American nation over the last decade, hoping to start anew in America.
Trump has highlighted the gang’s crimes as validation for his push seeking tighter borders.
The White House said 300 people in US custody have been identified as members of the gang, and could soon be deported to El Salvador.
Trump signed a presidential order in January, designating Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization, clearing a path for immigration officials to start rounding up its members for removal.
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