May 1 (UPI) — A Trump-appointed Texas federal judge ruled Thursday the administration is illegally using the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process.
The ruling permanently blocks use of the act to deport migrants.
U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez wrote in the ruling, “The Court concludes that the President’s invocation of the AEA through the Proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful.”
He said the Trump administration does not have any lawful authority to “detain Venezuelan aliens, transfer them within the United States, or remove them from the country.”
The ACLU brought the lawsuit to stop the illegal removals.
“The court ruled the president can’t unilaterally declare an invasion of the United States and invoke a wartime authority during peacetime,” ACLU lead counsel on the case Lee Gelernt said in a statement. “Congress never meant for this 18th-century wartime law to be used this way. This is a critically important decision that prevents more people from being sent to the notorious CECOT prison.”
President Donald Trump invoked the use of the law through a proclamation. The law was meant for use in time of war.
The Trump administration claimed it was targeting Tren de Aragua gang members.
Judge Rodriguez said in his ruling, “The President cannot summarily declare that a foreign nation or government has threatened or perpetrated an invasion or predatory incursion of the United States, followed by the identification of the alien enemies subject to detention or removal.”
Rodriguez said allowing a president to unilaterally define the conditions under which he may invoke the AEA and to summarily declare those conditions exist “would remove all limitations to the Executive Branch’s authority under the AEA.”
The judge said that would, in turn, strip the courts “of their traditional role of interpreting Congressional statutes to determine whether a government official has exceeded the statute’s scope.”
ACLU Texas legal director Adriana Pinon said in a statement, “This permanent injunction is a significant win for preventing unlawful, unilateral executive action that has been stoking fear across Texas, especially within border communities.”
Rodriguez ruled the AEA can only be invoked by a president when the nation is under armed, organized attack.
“The historical record renders clear that the President’s invocation of the AEA through the Proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute and is contrary to the plain, ordinary meaning of the statute’s terms,” Judge Rodriguez wrote. “As a result, the Court concludes that as a matter of law, the Executive Branch cannot rely on the AEA, based on the Proclamation, to detain the Named Petitioners and the certified class, or to remove them from the country.”
It’s the first ruling to declare the use of the AEA by the Trump administration to be illegal, exceeding the legal powers of the president.
The ruling does not prevent the Trump administration from using other existing immigration laws to deport the migrants, but due process has to be used.
Other judges have temporarily blocked the AEA’s use, but Rodriguez is the first federal judge to permanently block use of the AEA by declaring it unlawful.
In a 5-4 April decision the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to resume deporting Venezuelans under the AEA, but said the government must allow deportees time to challenge the removal in court.