DC Court of Appeals Blocks President’s Use of Alien Enemies Act
In a 2-1 decision, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that President Donald Trump cannot evoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport reputed members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal organization that has spread its activities throughout the US. Thereby, the order is blocked from going through at the moment.
The New York Post reports Judge Patricia Millett, appointed to the court by former-President Barack Obama, accused the Department of Justice of conducting the deportations in a manner more severe than that of Nazis in the immediate years after World War II:
“Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act [during World War II] than has happened here,” she said.
Millett stated in the court order:
“There is neither jurisdiction nor reason for this court to interfere at this very preliminary stage or to allow the government to single handedly moot the [migrants] claims by immediately removing them beyond the reach of their lawyers or the court.”
The one dissenter – Judge Justin Walker, appointed by President Trump in 2020 – provided his opinion about the order, stating it will cause “irreparable harm” to the US’s geopolitical status. The decision interferes “with an ongoing, partially overseas, national-security operation,” Walker wrote.
The dissenting judge also commented on the effect of the court’s decision:
“The district court told the Executive Branch to immediately stop executing a plan to repatriate or remove Venezuelan nationals pursuant to ‘[a]rrangements [that] were recently reached’ with El Salvador and ‘representatives of the Maduro regime [in Venezuela].’”
Walker continued:
“Not only that, the district court ‘commanded an unprecedented action’ from the bench: The district judge ordered aircraft to be turned around mid-flight in the middle of this sensitive ongoing national-security operation.”
Judge Walker ultimately believes Trump’s executive order to evoke the Alien Enemies Act falls under his rightful presidential authority.
First signed into law by President John Adams in 1798, the Alien Enemies Act allows the US Government to apprehend and deport foreign residents in the US if considered to be an international threat. Recently, Tren de Aragua was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the federal government.
