March 17, 2025
The Trump administration’s intent to use a wartime authority for immigration enforcement is as unprecedented as it is lawless.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead counsel, Lee Gelernt, on President Donald Trump’s plans to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport members of the newly designated terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (TdA).
What Happened: A plan by the Trump administration to deport more than 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 took effect this weekend; a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order calling on the deportations to be halted.
The order was handed down after the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act on Saturday in order to remove members of the Venezulean gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization in February. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit to stop the deportations, arguing that the wartime law, which has only been used three times, did not justify the deportations during peacetime.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to accusations that the administration defied the court order to turn around planes carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members, saying:
“The Administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory. The written order and the Administration’s actions do not conflict. Moreover, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear — federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion. A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.”
It’s unclear exactly how many people were expelled, but El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele posted a video on Sunday saying his country received 238 Venezuelan TdA gang members and 23 members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13.
Read More: Live updates: Trump’s deportation orders under scrutiny by courts (AP News)
J.G.G. v. TRUMP (ACLU)
by Courtney Lesskis, based in Texas
