President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act on Saturday, granting himself wide-ranging powers to deport illegal aliens associated with the gang Tren de Aragua. Within hours, however, an Obama-appointee judge had blocked him.
Trump’s presidential order, entitled “Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act Regarding the Invasion of The United States by Tren De Aragua,” states that the group “is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.”
The order describes how Tren de Aragua “operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking.” The gang is involved in “irregular warfare” against the US, the order continues.
Under the 200-year-old Alien Enemies Act, which was first issued in response to the threat of war with France, the President would have the power to allow non-citizens to be deported without the opportunity to appear before an immigration or federal judge.
Since 1798, the act has been used only three times: during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II, when it was used to inter people of German, Italian and Japanese ancestry. Over 100,000 people with Japanese ancestry were interred in camps between 1941 and 1945, including American citizens.
In response to Saturday’s order, Obama judge James E. Boasberg blocked any deportations under the order for two weeks and set a hearing for next Friday to hear arguments.
Boasberg also said that any deportation flights that had already taken off in compliance with the order, would have to return to the US.
“Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States however that is accomplished,” Boasberg said.
“Make sure it’s complied with immediately.”
According to the ACLU, two flights were en route to Central America when the judicial block was ordered.
One flight was apparently en route to El Salvador. On Saturday, President Trump reached an agreement with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele to host 300 Tren de Aragua members for a year, at a cost of $6 million. The agreement followed discussions between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Bukele about housing migrants in El Salvador’s prisons.
Trump said on a number of occasions during the election campaign that he would use extraordinary powers to remove illegal aliens.
In his inaugural address, the President said the Alien Enemies Act would be a key part of his immigration policy.
“By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil,” he said.
“As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions.”