Second judge blocks Trump administration's use of Alien Enemies Act to remove certain migran

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Source: CBS

Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from deporting noncitizens detained in the Southern District of New York under President Trump's proclamation invoking the wartime Alien Enemies Act.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said in a 22-page decision that the president's March proclamation ordering the summary removal of Venezuelan migrants exceeded the scope of the Alien Enemies Act, an 1798 law that the Trump administration has relied on to deport noncitizens that his administration claims are part of the gang Tren de Aragua.

The Alien Enemies Act gives the president the power to detain and deport migrants when there is a declared war between the U.S. and a foreign nation, or when there is an "invasion" or "predatory inclusion" against the U.S. by a foreign nation or government.

But Hellerstein, appointed by President Bill Clinton, said that the Trump administration failed to demonstrate the existence of a war, invasion or predatory incursion. Because of that, the Alien Enemies Act "was not validly invoked by the presidential proclamation," he wrote.

Hellerstein is the second federal judge to bar Trump administration officials from using the proclamation invoking the 1798 law to remove certain Venezuelan migrants at risk of deportation.



Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-blocks-trump-alien-enemies-act-southern-district-of-new-york/

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Summary of Order in case striking down Alien Enemies Act

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. Judge gives Trump lesson in US history as he hammers admin for illegal act

I never understood how a DOJ attorney would be stupid enough to sign a pleading claiming that the Alien Enemies Act applied. Any attorney who signed such a pleading need to be disbarred or sanctioned. Only an idiot would put his name on such a pleading or filing.

Judge gives Trump lesson in US history as he hammers admin for illegal act

www.rawstory.com/trump-alien-...

— Nipperdawg (@nipperdawg.bsky.social) 2025-05-06T18:41:35.392Z

Link to tweet

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-alien-enemies-act-44

A federal judge in New York found President Donald Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act was unlawful, Just Security legal analyst Adam Klasfeld reported Tuesday.

According to the ruling, the judge said that there's no “war,” “invasion” or “predatory incursion" — all have which Trump has suggested justify his use of the act to deport people without due process.

Trump alleged that he must use the AEA because there was "the greatest invasion in history" by immigrants into the U.S. In particular. Trump alleged that there was an influx of international gang members.

In a brutal decision, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein began by giving Trump's represenatives a history lesson.

"This nation was founded on the 'self-evident' truths 'that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, [and] that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,'" he wrote.

"Our Constitution embodies these truths, in a limited government of enumerated powers, in its system of checks and balances separating the executive, legislative and judicial branches, and in its guarantee that neither citizen nor alien be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

He continued: "Yet, in March 2025, more than 200 aliens were removed from this country to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (“CECOT'), with faint hope of process or return. The sweep for removal is ongoing, extending to the litigants in this case and others, thwarted only by order of this and other federal courts."

At the end of April, a federal judge in Colorado made "preliminary findings that the AEA didn't apply, but the final ruling on that is pending," Klasfeld recalled in a post on Bluesky.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Deadline: Legal Blog-Trump's Alien Enemies Act invocation gets even more dubious with new evidence

A newly declassified memo further cuts against the administration’s case for summary deportations under the wartime law.

Trump’s Alien Enemies Act invocation gets even more dubious with new evidence www.msn.com/en-us/news/n...

— FancyNance(Formerly Nance on X) (@fancynance.bsky.social) 2025-05-06T23:18:29.775Z

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/trump-alien-enemies-act-memo-deportations-rcna205112

Last week, a Donald Trump-appointed judge in Texas deemed the president’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act “unlawful.” Blocking further deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members under that law, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. said the invocation didn’t meet the legal standard demanded by the 1798 wartime law.

In doing so, Rodriguez emphasized that he wasn’t delving into Trump’s factual assertions underlying his invocation, including the claim that the Venezuelan government directs the gang Tren de Aragua’s actions. Even if those claims were true, the judge found, the government still didn’t meet the legal standard, because the alleged conduct didn’t qualify as an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” under the law.

But a newly declassified memo undercuts that factual claim, too, leaving both the legal and factual basis of Trump’s invocation wanting.

The New York Times reported that the memo, released Monday, “confirms that U.S. intelligence agencies rejected a key claim President Trump put forth to justify invoking a wartime statute to summarily deport Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador.” The Times reported that the memo “states that spy agencies do not believe that the administration of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, controls a criminal gang, Tren de Aragua. That determination contradicts what Mr. Trump asserted when he invoked the deportation law, the Alien Enemies Act.”

This latest news comes as another judge, in New York, ruled against Trump’s invocation on Tuesday. Meanwhile, lawyers for people already sent to that Salvadoran prison are seeking their return in a case out of Washington, D.C., while the Supreme Court could weigh in at any time in yet another case on the subject (a different one from Texas).

Ultimately, the justices could need to resolve the underlying legality of Trump’s invocation once and for all. The overall case against it is mounting.

I remain shocked that any competent lawyer would file a petition defending the use of the Alien Enemies Act. The use of this law does not pass the blush test. The judges who have ruled against this law did so based on the fact that it is clear that this law does not apply. Now it turns out that the Federal government knew that the factual claims made with respect to this law were false.

I am hoping that there will be some attorneys who will at least be sanctioned due to the use of this law.