Court Rejects Trump Deportation Plan

On Tuesday, a federal appellate court declared that President Donald Trump had illegally used a centuries-old wartime law to quickly deport Venezuelan migrants, halting one of his administration’s most controversial immigration policies and setting the stage for a legal dispute that will undoubtedly reach the Supreme Court.  Comprising judges from one of the country’s most conservative appellate courts, the panel’s 2-1 decision comes after a series of comparable decisions from lower courts throughout the nation. Trump’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport suspected members of the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang was denied by a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans. 

The panel concluded that the defendants’ presence in the country did not amount to the kind of invasion or “predatory incursion” that lawmakers had in mind when they drafted the statute permitting expedited deportations.  A number of other appellate courts have put off considering cases identical to the one the 5th Circuit ruled on Tuesday as they awaited the circuit court’s decision, which is generally considered to be the case most likely to make it to the Supreme Court first.

The Trump administration may either take its case straight to the Supreme Court, which has previously weighed in on the matter, or appeal Tuesday’s decision to the whole 5th Circuit court.  The judges temporarily prohibited removals under the Alien Enemies Act in Hendrix’s district in an unusual order issued in the middle of the night while they deliberated whether the migrants had been given adequate opportunity to contest their deportation. In order to set the stage for Tuesday’s decision, the court referred the case back to the Fifth Circuit a few weeks later, renewing the stay on deportations.

Source: The Washington Post