A federal judge says that President Donald Trump can use the Act extraterrestrial enemies To expel Venezuelan citizens who are demonstrated as members of the Gang Tren in Aragua.
The decision on Tuesday of the American district judge Stephanie Haines in Pennsylvania seems to be the first time that a federal judge has signed the proclamation of Trump calling a foreign terrorist organization and invoking the 18th century law expel people Labeled as being gang members.
At least Three other federal judges said Trump was Bad use of Extraterrestrial enemies act to accelerate the deportations of people who, according to the administration, are members of the Venezuelan gang.
Haines, a person appointed by Trump, also said that the administration had not given enough notice to the persons facing a dismissal under the AEA. It ordered the administration to provide notice of at least 21 days – much longer than the 12 hours that certain deportees were given.
“This case raises important questions which are deeply linked to the constitutional principles on which the government of this nation is founded,” wrote Haines. “By approaching these questions, the court begins by emphasizing the questions it does not resolve at the moment.”
The decision does not explain whether the administration can withdraw from other immigration laws, and it is not addressed to Trump to invoke the Act respecting extraterrestrial enemies to expel people who have simply migrated to the United States and who are not members of a foreign terrorist organization, Haines wrote. Nor did she evaluate if people suspected of being members of other gangs could be deleted under the law.
But she said that the law can be used to withdraw Venezuelan citizens who are at least 14 years old, who are in the United States without status of legal immigration and who are members of Tren de Aragua.
“After doing its job, the court now leaves the political branches of the government and, finally, to the people who elect these people, to decide whether the laws and those who execute them continue to reflect their will,” wrote Haines.
Trump published a proclamation in March saying that Tren of Aragua invades the United States, he said that he had special powers to expel immigrants, identified by his administration as Gangs members, without the usual legal proceedings. After the proclamation, the administration began to expel people designated as members of Tren of Aragua notorious prison in Salvador.
The proclamation and the ladies sparked a wave of prosecution in several states – including that which led Tuesday to the decision of hatred. This case was brought a Venezuelan national who says he fled to the United States with his wife and children in 2023 after having faced the extortion in his own country. He was arrested in February after a neighbor reported that he was a member of Tren de Aragua – an affirmation that the man vehement denies.
Man is only identified by his initials in the trial. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Tuesday.
Hatred initially approved the case as a collective recourse, temporarily preventing the Trump administration from using the AEA to expel migrants from its district. But she lifted this designation on Tuesday, paving the way for expulsions to resume as long as the people kidnapped receive at least 21 days of notice in English and Spanish as well as an “opportunity to be heard” on all the objections they could have.
