A federal judge on Saturday halted the Trump administration’s attempt to carry out mass deportations under an 18th-century law, just hours after President Donald Trump invoked it to claim the U.S. was being “invaded” by a Venezuelan gang and to assert new powers to remove its alleged members from the country.
Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an emergency order blocking the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify expedited deportations. He acted swiftly after learning that the government had already begun flying deportees—whom it had identified as newly removable under Trump’s proclamation—to El Salvador and Honduras, where they were set to be incarcerated.
“I do not believe I can wait any longer and am required to act,” Boasberg said during a Saturday evening hearing on a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and Democracy Forward. “A brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm,” he added, ordering that any planes already in the air be turned around.
The ruling came just hours after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used wartime measure, to facilitate mass deportations. The law, which grants presidents sweeping authority to remove foreign nationals during times of conflict, has only been used three times in U.S. history—all during wars. Its last application was during World War II, when it was used to detain Germans, Italians, and Japanese-Americans.
In a proclamation issued just over an hour before the court hearing, Trump claimed that the Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua (TdA) was waging a war against the United States.
“Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA,” Trump’s statement read. “The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.”
Under Trump’s order, the administration would be able to deport any migrant it labels as a gang member without standard immigration proceedings or legal protections. Critics argue that such an approach could bypass due process and expand the government’s ability to target individuals beyond criminal organizations.
Tren de Aragua, which originated in a Venezuelan prison, has expanded its presence amid Venezuela’s economic collapse, with many of its members blending into the broader migration wave of millions fleeing the country in search of better conditions. Trump and his allies have repeatedly pointed to the gang as a justification for their broader immigration crackdown, officially designating TdA a foreign terrorist organization last month.
The court’s decision marks an immediate legal challenge to Trump’s sweeping use of executive power, setting the stage for a broader battle over immigration enforcement and civil liberties.
