US judge stops Trump from invoking 18th-century law to speed deportations

A federal judge on Saturday prohibited the Trump administration from proceeding with deportations under an expansive 18th-century law that President Donald Trump had invoked only hours earlier in a bid to expedite the removal of Venezuelan gang members from the United States, as per reports by AP and others.

US district judge James E. Boasberg stated that immediate action was necessary, as the government had already begun transporting migrants it deemed newly deportable under Trump’s proclamation to detention facilities in El Salvador and Honduras. This past week, El Salvador agreed to receive up to 300 migrants whom the Trump administration had classified as gang members.

“I do not believe I can wait any longer and am required to act,” Boasberg asserted during a Saturday evening hearing in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and Democracy Forward. “A brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm,” he added, pointing out that the individuals in question remained in government custody. He also ordered that any aircraft already en route be turned around.

The ruling came mere hours after Trump alleged that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was launching an invasion of the United States and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — a wartime statute granting the president expanded authority over policy and executive decisions to accelerate mass deportations.

The act has historically been enforced only three times, each during periods of war. Its most recent application occurred during World War II when it was used to detain Germans and Italians, as well as to justify the mass internment of Japanese-American civilians.

In a proclamation issued just over an hour prior to Boasberg’s hearing, Trump argued that Tren de Aragua was effectively at war with the United States.

“Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organisations, including TdA,” Trump’s statement read. “The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.”

The order could enable the administration to deport any migrant it identifies as a gang member without adhering to standard immigration proceedings and might also eliminate certain legal protections for individuals targeted by the government.

On Saturday night, attorney-general Pam Bondi criticised Boasberg’s ruling, stating, “This order disregards well-established authority regarding President Trump’s power, and it puts the public and law enforcement at risk.”

Tren de Aragua, which originated in a Venezuelan prison, spread as part of the mass migration of millions of Venezuelans, the vast majority of whom were seeking better living conditions after their country’s economic collapse last decade. Trump and his allies have positioned the gang as a prime example of the supposed threat posed by undocumented migrants, formally designating it as a “foreign terrorist organisation” last month.

Authorities in several nations have reported arrests of Tren de Aragua members, despite the Venezuelan government’s claims that it has dismantled the organisation.

The US government revealed that Trump had actually signed the proclamation on Friday night. Immigration lawyers quickly noticed federal officials beginning to deport Venezuelans whom they otherwise lacked the legal authority to expel, prompting them to rush to court to challenge what they suspected was an imminent proclamation.

Boasberg issued an initial order at 9.20 am on Saturday, blocking the Trump administration from deporting five Venezuelans named as plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit.

These individuals, detained by the government, believed they were on the verge of being removed from the country. The Trump administration swiftly appealed the order, arguing that preemptively halting a presidential act before its official announcement would severely undermine executive authority.

If the order were upheld, “district courts would have licence to enjoin virtually any urgent national-security action just upon receipt of a complaint”, the Justice Department argued in its appeal.

Boasberg subsequently scheduled an afternoon hearing to consider whether his injunction should be extended to all individuals potentially targeted under Trump’s declaration.

Deputy assistant attorney-general Drew Ensign contended that the president possessed broad discretion to identify threats to national security and act under the 1798 statute. He cited a US Supreme Court decision that allowed President Harry Truman to continue detaining a German citizen in 1948 — three years after World War II had ended — under the same law.

“This would cut very deeply into the prerogatives of the president,” Ensign argued regarding the injunction.

However, ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt countered that Trump lacked the authority to invoke the statute against a criminal gang rather than a recognised state. Boasberg acknowledged that precedent on the matter was complex but concluded that the ACLU had a reasonable chance of prevailing in its arguments, justifying his order.

Boasberg imposed a 14-day halt on deportations for those currently in custody and scheduled a hearing for the following Friday.

The flurry of legal challenges underscores the significance of Trump’s proclamation, which represents the administration’s latest attempt to expand presidential authority. Ensign argued that, as part of its post-9/11 response, Congress had granted the president the power to classify “transnational” organisations as threats comparable to sovereign states.

Meanwhile, Gelernt warned that the Trump administration could simply issue a fresh proclamation to apply the Alien Enemies Act to another migrant gang, such as MS-13, which has long been a focal point of Trump’s rhetoric.

With agency inputs