President Donald Trump on Saturday invoked the alien enemy law of 1798, claiming that the United States was being invaded by Venezuelan gangs. This allows the President to have a broader leeway for policy and enforcement actions, and speed up the massive deportation of people.
Trump’s declaration targets Tren de Aragua, claiming it is a hostile force acting at the Venezuelan government’s request. The declaration comes on the same day that a federal judge in Washington banned the administration from deporting five Venezuelans under the expected order. The judge was scheduled to consider expanding the deportation ban minutes after Trump’s afternoon announcement.
Watch: How the Trump administration’s deportation policy has affected immigrants and citizens
“For many years, Venezuela’s national and local governments have been increasingly restrained against territory to cross-border criminal organizations, including the TDA,” Trump’s statement said. “The consequence is a hybrid criminal nation committed invasions and predatory invasions of the United States, poses a great danger to the United States.”
This law was last used as part of the internment of Japanese-American civilians during World War II, and only two were used in American history during the First World War and the 1812 war.
Trump spoke about the use of the law during the presidential election, and immigrant groups endured it. It led to an extraordinary lawsuit on Saturday, and was filed before Trump’s declaration was made public. The lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy has suddenly moved to deportation in recent hours on behalf of five Venezuelans.
James E. Boasberg, the Supreme Court Justice of the DC Circuit, has agreed to implement a temporary restraining order to prevent a 14-day deportation based on the actions of five Venezuelans who are already in custody of immigrants and believe they are about to be deported. Boasberg said his order was “to maintain the status quo.” Boasberg scheduled a hearing in the late afternoon to see if his orders should be expanded to protect all Venezuelans in the United States.
Hours later, the Trump administration called for an initial restraining order, claiming that halting presidential actions before it was announced would crippling the administrative department.
If the order is granted, “the district court has a license to effectively prohibit emergency national security lawsuits from receiving a complaint,” the Justice Department wrote in its appeal.
The district court then said it could issue temporary restraining orders on actions such as drone strikes, sensitive intelligence reporting work, and terrorist capture and extradition. The department argued that the court “should stop that path.”
The unusual gusts of the lawsuit highlight a controversial act, which could give Trump a great empowerment to illegally deport people from within the country. It allows him to divert some protections of ordinary criminal and immigration laws in order to quickly deport those whom he claims his administration is a gang member.
The White House has already designated Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization, and is preparing to move around some 300 people detained in El Salvador as gang members.
