An appeals court judge on Monday argued that the Nazis were given more rights to fight for removal from the United States during World War II than the Venezuelan immigrants who were deported by the Trump administration.
The comments came at a controversial hearing shortly after a lower court blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to deport immigrants under the War Forces Act, which is about 225 years old.
Judge James Bourseberg on Monday rejected the government’s attempt to protect the restraining orders protecting Venezuelans accused of gang ties from aerodynamics.
“The appointed plaintiffs are in a dispute that they are members of Tren de Aragua. They may not be deported until the court determines the merits of their challenge,” Boasberg wrote.
Later Monday, US Circuit Judge Patricia Millett questioned that government lawyers portrayed whether Venezuelans targeting alien removal would have time to challenge the Trump administration’s claim that they were members of the Transi Aragua gang before they were deported to El Salvador on planes.
“The Nazis received better treatment under the alien enemy law than what happened here,” Millett said.
The clash is rooted in Donald Trump’s March 15th declaration, which summons the 1798 alien enemy law. The administration claims it is claiming that it is insisting on the activities of Venezuelan gangster Tren de Aragua.
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One of the deported gang members is a 23-year-old gay makeup artist with no apparent gang affiliation, who was heard alongside hundreds of Venezuelan men and shipped to the infamous Secott prison in El Salvador. His lawyer, Lindsay Tozzilawski, went to MSNBC last week, claiming that he “disappeared” despite a scheduled immigration court appearance after officials misinterpreted his tattoo as a gang symbol.
According to Boasberg’s orders, five Venezuelan immigrants have secured emergency relief — fearing immediate deportation over suspicions of gang membership just hours before the Trump administration said it would use alien enemy laws. Some of the immigrants who filed the lawsuit allegedly fled Venezuela to actually escape the gang.
Trump, called Boasberg, the “radical left-madman,” an Obama-appointed judge, called for his blast each, urged Supreme Court Supreme Court Judge John Roberts to issue a rare responsibility.
Boasberg explained on Monday that his order did not block regular immigration enforcement, noting that the administration had already designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization and allowed deportation through standard channels.
Trump’s lawyers have asked the Court of Appeals to lift Boasberg’s ruling that blocked the administration’s use of wartime law. If the appeals court ruled the rules in their favour, it could have given the Trump administration a free hand to use it to deport immigrants.
