A federal appeals court ruled that President Donald Trump cannot use an old wartime law to deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The decision could set up a fight at the Supreme Court.
In a 2–1 decision, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, passed during the John Adams administration, does not apply in peacetime against criminal gangs. The law has only been used three times in U.S. history, during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II, when Congress declared war.
Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick, a George W. Bush appointee, and Circuit Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez, appointed by Joe Biden, wrote the majority opinion. They rejected Trump’s claim that Tren de Aragua’s infiltration of the United States amounted to a “predatory incursion” under the law.
“A country 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,” the opinion stated.
The ruling blocks deportations under the Act from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. It follows Trump’s March 14 proclamation that sought to use the 18th-century law to justify the rapid removal of Venezuelans accused of being part of the gang. The administration argued the group was tied to Venezuela’s government and posed a national security threat.
Trump officials had already deported some detainees, sending them to a prison in El Salvador. They insisted courts could not order their release once transferred. More than 250 deported migrants were later sent back to Venezuela under a July deal.
The case was brought by a group of men held at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Texas, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. Attorney Lee Gelernt, who argued the case, said the court was right to rein in Trump’s use of emergency powers.
“The Trump administration’s use of a wartime statute during peacetime to regulate immigration was rightly shut down by the court,” he said. “This is a critically important decision reining in the administration’s view that it can simply declare an emergency without any oversight by the courts.”
Trump ally and Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham dissented, accusing the majority of undermining presidential authority over foreign affairs and national security. “The majority’s approach to this case is not only unprecedented — it is contrary to more than 200 years of precedent,” Oldham wrote.
The Trump administration did secure one narrow victory in the decision, with the judges agreeing that the procedures used to inform detainees of their rights under the Act were legally sufficient.
The ruling is expected to be appealed either to the full Fifth Circuit or directly to the Supreme Court, which already weighed in earlier this year. In May, the justices temporarily halted removals while the case moved forward, with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissenting from that decision.
The latest ruling is the first time a federal appeals court has directly addressed Trump’s effort to use the Alien Enemies Act against Tren de Aragua. With the stakes high, the final word is likely to come from the nation’s highest court.