A federal judge prevented the Trump Sports Administration from non -citizens in accordance with the recent proclamation of the President invoking the Alien Enemies Law.
Less than two hours after President Donald Trump tried to invoke the law of the eighteenth century to deport alleged members of the Venezuelan Gang Train of Aragua, the United States district judge, James Boasberg, issued a temporary restriction order that prevents the Trump administration from being sport not currently citizens currently in custody to the recent proclamation of the president.
President Donald Trump talks to the press when he meets with NATO general, Mark Rutte, at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on March 13, 2025.
Pool through AP
“Flights actively leave and plan to leave. I don’t think I can wait any longer,” said Boasberg.
He also ordered the Trump administration to immediately deliver two planes that lead non -citizens if they are covered by their order, including one that potentially took off during a break at the court hearing.
“It will inform your customers of this immediately any plane containing these people who will take off or who is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” he said. “However, that is achieved, turning the plane or not embarking on anyone on the plane … This is something that must ensure that it is fulfilled immediately.”
Finding deportations would cause irreparable damage, Boasberg prohibited the Trump to Deporting “all non -citizens subject to the proclamation of AEA” for at least 14 days. ICE will continue to maintain non -citizens in their custody while the lawsuit makes its way through the courts.
“I think there is clearly irreparable damage here since these people will be deported and many, or the vast majority, prison or back to Venezuela, where they face persecution or worse,” he said.
Before Judge Boasberg issued his order, a lawyer from the Department of Justice refused to say if any deportation was ongoing, arguing to reveal “operational details” would raise “possible national security problems.” He later acknowledged that two flights, one for El Salvador and another to Honduras, had already left.
Archive Photo: Immigration and Customs Compliance Agents stop a man after making a raid in the Cedar Run Apartament Complex in Denver, Colorado, USA. UU., February 5, 2025. Reuters/Kevin Mohatt/File photo
Kevin Mohatt/Reuters
Boasberg also expressed concern that Venezuelans would be sent to a prison in El Salvador, instead of their country of origin.
“Not only will they be deported, but it will not be for a kind field but to prison,” Judge Boasberg said.
After the judge’s decision, the attorney general Pam Bondi issued a statement criticizing the judge who, “supported Aragua’s train terrorists about the safety of Americans. TDA is represented by ACLU. This order ignores the well -established authority with respect to the power of President Trump, and puts the public application and the law at risk.”
The ACLU represents five plaintiffs who believe they have moved to the detention centers in Texas aimed at “organization facilities to eliminate Venezuelan men under the AEA”, show judicial documents. Four of the five plaintiffs have been accused of being members of the train in Aragua.
ACLU states that they have been unfairly accused of being gang members, some apparently are only based on their tattoos, despite the fact that some seek protection in the United States of the same gang of which they are now accused of being part.
Saturday’s audience occurred when the Trump administration reclaimed That the powers of article II of the President give him the authority to unilaterally deport anyone who represents a “significant threat” for the United States. The lawyers of the Department of Justice argued that the temporary restriction order would represent an “irreparable damage” to Trump’s authority.
Early in the day, Boasberg temporarily blocked the deportation of five non -citizens and said he was considering extending his temporary restriction order to cover a broader class of non -citizens.
The Aclu lawyers alleged that the Trump administration actively deported “hundreds” of Venezuelan migrants to Salvadoran prisons.
“Our understanding of people in the field of different sources is that the airplanes are currently taking Venezuelans to El Salvador and may end in El Salvador in prison,” said Lee Gelernt de Aclu. “Not only that will disable this court of jurisdiction, but I think those people are in real problems.”
The lawyers of the Department of Justice requested the United States Court of Appeals for the Columbia district circuit to enter an administrative suspension of the Boasberg temporary restriction order.
“This Court should stop this massive and unauthorized imposition to the Executive’s authority to eliminate dangerous foreigners who represent threats to the American people,” they said in the presentation.
The government argued that Boasberg exceeded his authority, refused to listen to a response from the Trump administration before governing and is “preparing the scenario to potentially inject into all those removals throughout the country.”
Boasberg previously supervised the Alien terrorist withdrawal court and was nominated for federal judicial roles by both presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
The AEA states that it can only be invoked when there is a war or an invasion by a foreign government or nation. It allows the president to order all citizens of that foreign nation who are not naturalized in the United States to be arrested and eliminated “as alien enemies.”
In essence, members of that hostile nation could quickly eliminate the country with little or no due process.
The ACLU argues that the Government would illegally invoke the law to address the alleged members of Aragua’s train because the gang is not a nation and there is no invasion as described by US law.
“The intention of the Trump Administration to use an authority in times of war for the application of immigration is not precedents as without law. It can be the most extreme measure of the administration so far, and that is a lot to say a lot,” said Lee Glent, deputy director of the Immigrant Rights Project of the ACLU and the main lawyer.
The Defense Department is not expected to have a role in the invocation of the authority, which could be used to deport some migrants without an audience.
There have been discussions within the administration of the invitation of the law, several sources said.
Trump had previously said in the campaign planning to invoke the act.
The act has not been used since World War II when used to stop US Japanese.
Japanese foreigners arrested by FBI agents in a raid in the area of Santa-Maria-Guadalupe, are downloaded from an army truck in the Santa Barbara court, California, on February 18, 1942. Where they were taken to examine.
AP
During World War II, the Alien Enemies Law was partially used to justify the internment of Japanese immigrants who had not become US citizens. The broader internment of Japanese-statements was carried out under executive orders signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and not the alien enemies law since the law does not apply to US citizens.
