Trump deports a Venezuelan gang using a 1798 law. A Prosecutor blocks the decision.
A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from carrying out deportations under an 18th-century law that the president had invoked just hours earlier, claiming that the United States was being invaded by a Venezuelan gang and that he had new powers to remove its members from the country.
James E. Boasberg, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, stated that he issued the order because the government was transferring migrants to El Salvador and Honduras to be imprisoned in those countries. El Salvador has already agreed this week to accept up to 300 migrants that the Trump administration has designated as gang members.
“I don’t think I can wait any longer, and I am compelled to act,” Boasberg said during a hearing in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Democracy Forward. “A short delay in their removal does not cause any harm to the government,” he added, noting that the migrants remain in government custody but ordering that all planes in flight be turned back.
The ruling came just hours after Trump stated that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was invading the United States and invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a law that, in times of war, grants the president broader discretion over policy and executive action to expedite mass deportations.
