Judge Blocks Deportation of 5 Venezuelans With Suspected Ties to Tren de Aragua Gang

A court has granted an emergency order blocking the potential deportation of Venezuelan detainees under the wartime Alien Enemies Act.

A military flight carrying illegal immigrant members of the Tren de Aragua gang to Guantanamo Bay prepares to depart, in El Paso, Texas, on Feb. 4, 2025. Department of Homeland Security

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration not to deport five Venezuelan nationals in a lawsuit filed ahead of Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a rarely used law allowing for quick deportation of foreigners during times of war or invasion.

Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia entered a paperless order on March 15, citing “exigent circumstances” in granting a request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others to block the deportation of the Venezuelan plaintiffs identified in the case.

Boasberg’s order bars the deportation of the five Venezuelan men, accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua transnational criminal gang, for a period of two weeks, while further legal proceedings play out.

The lawsuit, filed early Saturday by the ACLU and Democracy Forward, preemptively challenged President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, which would be used to justify the deportations of the five Venezuelan plaintiffs, who are currently detained in Texas.

Later in the day, Trump issued a proclamation invoking the wartime law, noting that Tren de Aragua is a Foreign Terrorist Organization and asserting that many of its members have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions” against the country.

The proclamation also states that Tren de Aragua “is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States,” and that the gang’s members are “alien enemies” posing a danger to the country. Trump also ordered all Tren de Aragua members to be immediately arrested and deported.

The ACLU and Democracy Forward contend in their memo in support of a request for a temporary restraining order that the plaintiffs have “compelling asylum claims” and that the administration wrongly classified them as “alien enemies” under the AEA [Alien Enemies Act]—a classification that allows them to be quickly deported if there’s a declared war or “any invasion or predatory incursion.”

The judge’s order blocking deportation was entered before the Trump administration had filed a response to the allegations. The Justice Department, which is representing the Trump administration in the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

In his first day back in office, Trump signed a proclamation declaring a national emergency at the southern border, claiming that “America’s sovereignty is under attack” from cartels, criminal gangs, human traffickers, and the illegal entry of aliens.

The proclamation explicitly refers to an “invasion” that has caused “widespread chaos and suffering” in the United States, while directing federal agencies to take immediate action to address what Trump described as a “present danger and imminent threat” associated with illegal immigration.

The ACLU and Democracy Forward contend, however, that the United States is neither at war with Venezuela nor facing an invasion from a foreign government, and so the Trump administration’s potential use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport the Venezuelan men is illegitimate.

“The vagueness and breadth of the expected Proclamation, along with the government’s haphazard process for accusing individuals of affiliation with Tren de Aragua, will undoubtedly result in fear and uncertainty about the Proclamation’s scope, and will chill immigrants in their day-to-day activities and the exercise of their basic constitutional rights,” the groups wrote in the motion.

“In addition, Defendants’ extraordinary and atextual invocation of a war power, outside of the context of an actual or imminent war, raises grave concerns about Defendants’ unjustified invocation of war powers more generally—and the broader stability of the United States’ legal order,” they added.

In siding with the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order blocking deportation, the judge noted that the groups had satisfied the four factors needed to grant preliminary relief. These are: likelihood of success on the merits, probability of suffering irreparable harm, the balance of equities tipping in the plaintiffs’ favor, and an injunction being in the public interest.

The judge scheduled a March 17 hearing by videoconference.

Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel at the ACLU of the District of Columbia, said in a statement that the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act would represent “yet another dangerous overreach by the administration, designed to support an unchecked mass deportation program, all while bypassing the necessary judicial review.”

Trump has repeatedly indicated his intention to invoke the act to combat illegal immigration, including during his Jan. 20 inaugural address.

“By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities,” he said.

“As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do. We will do it at a level that nobody has ever seen before,” Trump added.

Since taking office, the president has acted decisively on immigration enforcement, including ordering federal agencies to take immediate action to repel and remove illegal immigrants who cross the border.