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A federal judge in Texas has ruled that the Trump administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act in order to deport undocumented migrants without due process is unlawful because the act is predicated on an organized, armed act of war, or other violent action against the United States — none of which are currently happening.
In a Thursday ruling, District Court Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. found that “an ‘invasion’ or ‘predatory incursion’” as stated in the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) must involve an “organized, armed force entering the United States to engage in conduct destructive of property and human life in a specific geographical area, the action need not be a precursor to actual war.”
“The President cannot summarily declare that a foreign nation or government has threatened or perpetrated an invasion or predatory incursion of the United States, followed by the identification of the alien enemies subject to detention or removal,” Hernandez wrote. “The Court concludes that a Presidential declaration invoking the AEA must include sufficient factual statements or refer to other pronouncements that enable a court to determine whether the alleged conduct satisfies the conditions that support the invocation of the statute.”
Trump — who has been alleging that his deportation is being stymied by communist, radical-left judges” —appointed Rodriguez in 2017.
Rodriguez blocked the Trump administration from “detaining, transferring, or removing” undocumented migrants party to the West Texas class action lawsuit brought on behalf of migrants who were detained under the Alien Enemies Act.
Last month, a U.S. intelligence report directly contradicted Trump’s claims that the government of Venezuela was intentionally coordinating with the Tren de Aragua gang in order to send violent gang members to the United States. The report was a direct blow to Trump’s broad targeting of undocumented Venezuelan migrants, some of whom have been accused of terrorism and deported to dangerous prisons in El Salvador under Trump’s supposed AEA authority, despite having no criminal records.
The Trump administration has argued that because Trump signed executive orders designating Central American gangs like Tred de Aragua and MS-13 as foreign terrorist groups, the presence of their members in the United States constitutes an invasion that grants him authority to remove them without hearings or an opportunity to challenge their detention.
Hernandez added that allowing presidents to unilaterally declare an invasion and invoke the act would “strip the courts of their traditional role of interpreting Congressional statutes to determine whether a government official has exceeded the statute’s scope.”
The Trump administration’s in-court battles to establish their authority under the AEA — as well as their lack of compliance with court rulings — have resulted in a series of sharp rebukes from judges in federal and district courts. Last week, U.S. District Judge David Briones of El Paso reprimanded the government for attempting to accuse a Venezuelan couple of being members of Tren de Aragua — and in effect “alien enemies” — without tangible evidence.
Briones wrote that it was absurd the government would base their entire case against Julio Cesar Sanchez Puentes and Luddis Norelia Sanchez Garcia on “multiple levels of hearsay, hidden within declarations of declarants who have no personal knowledge about the facts they are attesting to.”
“This court takes clear offense to respondents wasting judicial resources to admit to the court it has no evidence, yet seek to have this court determine petitioner Sanchez Puentes is ‘guilty by association’” by being married to his wife,” he added.
In the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Maryland man the Trump administration admitted it sent to a prison in El Salvador by mistake — Judge Paula Xinis accused the administration of engaging in “a willful and bad faith refusal” to comply with court orders and discovery obligations related to the case.
The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 last month that the government must “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States. While the government has insisted that it has no way to force the government of El Salvador to return him, Trump said in a Tuesday interview with ABC News that he “could” get Abrego Garcia back if he wanted. He then said it was up to the lawyers.
