Federal judge OKs use of Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans who are
labeled gang members
[May 14, 2025]
By REBECCA BOONE
A federal judge says President Donald Trump can use the Alien Enemies
Act to deport Venezuelan citizens who are shown to be members of the
Tren de Aragua gang.
The ruling Tuesday from U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines in
Pennsylvania appears to be the first time a federal judge has signed off
on Trump's proclamation calling Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist
organization and invoking the 18th century wartime law to deport people
labeled as being members of the gang.
Also Tuesday, another federal judge in the western district of Texas
temporarily barred the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies
Act to deport people in that region. At least three other federal judges
have said Trump was improperly using the AEA to speed deportations of
people the administration says are Venezuelan gang members.
Haines, a Trump appointee, also said the administration hasn’t been
giving enough notice to people facing removal under the AEA. She ordered
the administration to provide at least 21 days notice — far longer than
the 12 hours that some deportees have been given.
“This case poses significant issues that are deeply interwoven with the
constitutional principles upon which this Nation’s government is
founded,” Haines wrote. "In approaching these issues, the Court begins
by stressing the questions that it is not resolving at this time.”
The ruling doesn't address whether the administration can remove people
under other immigration laws, nor does it address whether Trump can
invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport people who simply migrated to the
U.S. and who aren't members of a foreign terrorist organization, Haines
wrote. She also did not weigh in on whether people suspected of being
members of other gangs could be removed under the act.
But she did say the Act can be used to remove Venezuelan citizens who
are at least 14 years old, who are in the U.S. without legal immigration
status, and who are members of Tren de Aragua.
“Having done its job, the Court now leaves it to the Political Branches
of the government, and ultimately to the people who elect those
individuals, to decide whether the laws and those executing them
continue to reflect their will,” Haines wrote.
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Trump issued a proclamation in March claiming that Tren de Aragua
was invading the U.S. He said he had special powers to deport
immigrants, identified by his administration as gang members,
without the usual court proceedings. After the proclamation, the
administration began deporting people designated as Tren de Aragua
members to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
The proclamation and deporations sparked a flurry of lawsuits in
multiple states — including the one that led to Haines' ruling
Tuesday. That case was brought a Venezuelan national who says he
fled to the U.S. with his wife and children in 2023 after facing
extortion in his own country. He was arrested in February after a
neighbor reported that he is a member of Tren de Aragua — a claim
the man vehemently denies.
Haines initially approved the case as a class action, temporarily
blocking the Trump administration from using the AEA to deport any
migrants in her district. But she lifted that designation Tuesday,
clearing the way for deportations to resume as long as the people
being removed are given at least 21 days notice in English and
Spanish as well as an “opportunity to be heard” on any objections
they might have.
In the Texas case, a woman said she fled Venezuela after she was
subjected to repeated harassment, assault and intimidation as a form
of political persecution. She came to the U.S. in 2023 and was
granted temporary protected status, and is currently seeking asylum.
But last month she was arrested in Ohio and accused of being a gang
member, which she denies. She is currently being held in El Paso,
and asked Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones to stop the Trump
administration from deporting her and other detainees in the region
because, she said, the president's proclamation violates the due
process rights of people facing removal and wrongly equates Tren de
Aragua as an invasion by a foreign government.
Briones said she was likely to succeed on the merits, and
temporarily barred the administration from transferring the woman or
other people in the region accused of being Tren de Aragua members
into other districts or deporting them under the Alien Enemies Act.
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