President Donald Trump’s administration deported nearly 300 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act despite a federal judge blocking the flights under the 1798 law last wielded during World War II.
Chief U.S. Judge James Boasberg’s order Saturday came after Trump issued a proclamation, which he had signed the day before, targeting Tren de Aragua members for immediate deportations under the 18th century law. Trump’s order said the gang “continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens.”
The Alien Enemies Act allows the deportation without a hearing of anyone from the designated enemy country who is not a naturalized citizen. The law has only been invoked three times while the country was at war, to hasten the removal of citizens of enemy countries.
Hours before the proclamation’s release, Boasberg in Washington, D.C., granted a temporary restraining order Saturday and ordered the government not to deport five Venezuelan nationals cited in a lawsuit brought by two nonprofits, Democracy Forward and the American Civil Liberties Union.
During a subsequent hearing Saturday evening, the judge turned the lawsuit into a class action and extended the temporary restraining order to all noncitizens in the United States covered in Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.
The Trump administration has asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to block Boasberg’s order while the case is litigated. A three-judge panel of appeals judges set deadlines Tuesday for the government to file arguments and Wednesday for the Venezuelans to file arguments. Boasberg has postponed his next hearing in the case from Monday until Friday.
Despite Boasberg’s order, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Sunday that alleged Tren De Aragua gang members were arrested over the weekend at Trump’s direction and had already been deported to El Salvador.
“Thanks to the great work of the Department of State, these heinous monsters were extracted and removed to El Salvador where they will no longer be able to pose any threat to the American People,” Leavitt said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said in a statement Sunday that “hundreds of violent criminals were sent out of our country,” thanking President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and saying he “volunteered to imprison” the migrants.