Venezuelan immigrants sue Trump over order to invoke wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798

A group of Venezuelan men in immigration custody in Texas and New York local jails filed a federal civil lawsuit Saturday against President Trump and other administration officials asking a federal judge to block the future removals of immigrants under a wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The judge Saturday evening indicated he would issue an order temporarily blocking the law. 

Mr. Trump invoked the 227-year-old wartime law on Saturday. 

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., by attorneys with the ACLU and Democracy Forward argues the Alien Enemies Act is “a wartime measure that has been used only three times in our Nation’s history: the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.”

Presidents are given the extraordinary power by the 227-year-old law to order the arrest, detention and deportation of noncitizens who are 14 years or older and come from countries staging an “invasion or predatory incursion” of the U.S. 

James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the District Court for the U.S. District of Columbia on Saturday implemented a temporary restraining order preventing the deportation for 14 days. The Justice Department appealed that decision, arguing the D.C. court has no authority over the case because none of the five men are in the district. Four are being held in detention in Texas and one in New York. They further argue that invocation of the Alien Enemies Act is “speculation.” 

Then, during an ensuing emergency hearing Saturday evening, Boasberg expanded his order to include all noncitizens covered by Mr. Trump’s move to invoke the Alien Enemies Act. 

Boasberg also appeared to indicate that any deportation flights that were currently in the air with migrants subject to this order on board should be returned to the U.S.  

The lawsuit states that Mr. Trump is “expected to authorize immediate removal of noncitizens that the Proclamation deems to be alien enemies, without any opportunity for judicial review.”

“It also contorts the plain language of the Act: arrivals of noncitizens from Venezuela are deemed an ‘invasion’ or ‘predatory incursion’ by a ‘foreign nation or government,’ where Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, is deemed to be sufficiently akin to a foreign nation or government,” the lawsuit alleges. 

As such, the government can identify any Venezuelan in the U.S. as a member of that gang, regardless of facts, and seek to deport them, the lawsuit alleges. 

In the civil lawsuit, the men also argue the Alien Enemies Act “has only ever been a power invoked in time of war, and plainly only applies to warlike actions: it cannot be used here against nationals of a country — Venezuela — with whom the United States is not at war, which is not invading the United States, and which has not launched a predatory incursion into the United States.”

contributed to this report.

Scott MacFarlane

Scott MacFarlane is CBS News’ Justice correspondent. He has covered Washington for two decades, earning 20 Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards. His reporting has resulted directly in the passage of five new laws.