US District Judge Fernando Rodriguez ruled that President Donald Trump has no authority to use the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to arrest or deport Venezuelan migrants held in a Texas state facility.
The judge based his ruling on the following reasoning:
“The question…is whether the president can utilize a specific statute, the AEA, to detain and remove Venezuelan aliens who are members of TdA,” Rodriguez decided. “As to that question, 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.”
The judge further argued that the AEA is being misapplied to the current sociopolitical context. In 1798, the act was directed toward foreign militaries, Rodriguez claimed:
“The historical records that the parties present… demonstrate that at the time of the AEA’s enactment, the plain, ordinary meaning of ‘invasion’ was an entry into the nation’s territory by a military force or an organized, armed force, with the purpose of conquering or obtaining control over territory.”
According to CBS News, “Rodriguez’s order clarifies that his permanent injunction does not prohibit administration officials from moving forward with removal proceedings under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”
In March, President Trump invoked the AEA to increase mass deportations of illegal immigrants and eliminate the presence of foreign criminal gangs in the US. The AEA is being used primarily to target the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA). TdA was designated one of eight South American foreign terrorist organizations by the White House in February.
The AEA was signed into law by President John Adams in 1798. Its purpose was to make US residents 14 years and older who were from a “hostile nation or government… liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies” during times of war. These alien enemies could be “natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects” to said governments.
