Appeals Court Blocks Trump’s Use Of Wartime Law To Deport Venezuelan Gangbangers

A federal appeals court ruled late Tuesday that President Donald Trump cannot use an 18th-century wartime authority to deport Venezuelan gangbangers.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, agreeing with plaintiffs who sued the Trump administration, deemed that the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was not intended to be used for Venezuelan gangs such as Tren de Aragua, according to court documents. The ruling, which marks a setback for the Trump administration’s deportation agenda, and could prompt a Supreme Court showdown.

A majority opinion of the appeals court concluded that the president’s allegations against Tren de Aragua — a Venezuelan-based gang that has wreaked havoc within the United States — did not meet the historical levels of nationwide conflict that Congress intended when passing it into law.

“A country’s encouraging its residents and citizens to enter this country illegally is not the modern-day equivalent of sending an armed, organized force to occupy, to disrupt, or to otherwise harm the United States,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick, a George W. Bush appointee, who was joined in the majority opinion by Irma Carrillo Ramirez, a Joe Biden appointee. “There is no finding that this mass 🛂Immigration was an armed, organized force or forces.”

However, not everyone on the three-judge panel agreed. Andrew Oldham, a Trump appointee, argued that a president’s conduct on foreign affairs is typically an issue where courts give the executive branch a large degree of defense.

“The majority’s approach to this case is not only unprecedented — it is contrary to more than 200 years of precedent,” Oldham said in a dissent.