A federal judge gave a huge blow to the Trump administration’s deportation of Venezuelan gang members from the country, blocking the use of a centuries-old law to fast-track the crackdown.
US district judge James E Boasberg issued the emergency ruling on Saturday evening, just hours after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify immediate deportations. The law, which has historically only been used during wartime, would have allowed the administration to bypass standard immigration proceedings.
Boasberg intervened after learning that the government had already begun flying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador and Honduras under the order. El Salvador had agreed earlier in the week to accept up to 300 migrants deemed gang members by US authoritiesss.
“I do not believe I can wait any longer and am required to act,” Boasberg said in court. He added, “a brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm.”
The ruling came shortly after the president’s claim that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was mounting an “invasion” of the United States, posing a direct national security threat. His proclamation, issued just over an hour before the hearing, described the country as a “hybrid criminal state” that had lost control to transnational crime syndicates, including Tren de Aragua.
The order, if enforced, would have given the administration unprecedented power to remove individuals it identified as gang members without court review. It also threatened to strip certain legal protections normally available to those facing deportation.
Legal challenges for Trump
The administration’s move triggered legal challenges, as the ACLU and Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan migrants who feared imminent deportation.
In response, Boasberg issued a temporary order on Saturday morning to halt their removal. The government appealed, arguing that preventing a president from acting before an order is even publicly announced would paralyse executive power.
The justice department appealed that if the order were allowed to stand, “district courts would have license to enjoin virtually any urgent national-security action just upon receipt of a complaint.”
Boasberg later expanded his ruling to cover all migrants affected by Trump’s order, pausing deportations for up to 14 days and scheduling a follow-up hearing on Friday.
During the hearing, deputy assistant attorney general Drew Ensign defended the order, arguing that Trump had the authority to use the Alien Enemies Act against Tren de Aragua. He also referred a 1948 Supreme Court decision that allowed the US to continue holding a German national as an enemy alien years after World War II had ended.
Tren de Aragua originated in a Venezuelan prison and expanded across South America as millions fled economic collapse in the country. While Trump made the gang a focus point of his immigration policy, formally designating it as a terrorist organisation last month, Venezuelan authorities claim that the group has been dismantled.
