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Claiming the United<\/span> States is being attacked by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang, President Donald Trump on Saturday invoked<\/a> the\u00a0Alien Enemies Act of 1798\u00a0<\/a>to order the rapid detention and deportation of all Venezuelan migrants suspected of being members of TdA, treating them as wartime enemies of the U.S. government.<\/p>\n The president argued, in his proclamation, that members of the Venezuelan gang are \u201cconducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Alien Enemies Act is a wartime authority that allows the president to detain or deport the \u201cnatives\u201d and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing and based only on their country of birth or citizenship. It has been invoked just three times in American history, each during a major conflict: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. It is\u00a0best known<\/a>\u00a0for its role in Japanese incarceration during the Second World War, a shameful part of U.S. history for which Congress<\/a> and\u00a0several<\/a>\u00a0presidents<\/a>\u00a0have\u00a0apologized<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration\u2019s ability to use the Alien Enemies Act on Saturday evening. The judge also ordered any airborne planes carrying those migrants to return to the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cThe president\u2019s invocation of a wartime authority for peacetime immigration enforcement is a manifest abuse and injustice,\u201d Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel at the Brennan Center\u2019s Liberty and National Security program, told The Intercept. \u201cThe Alien Enemies Act was last used to intern 31,000 people during World War II; it is shameful to try to revive this outdated and discriminatory law to target immigrants in modern-day America.\u201d<\/p>\n The expedited removal process allowed under the act means that those subject to the president\u2019s declaration would not go through the normal immigration court process or be able to claim asylum. Advocates fear that invoking the act would also open the door to targeting and deportations of other individuals regardless of their status or criminal records.<\/p>\n U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered a 14-day halt to deportations covered by Trump\u2019s proclamation.<\/p>\n Hours before the White House published the proclamation \u2013 Trump had actually signed it a<\/a> day earlier \u2013 the American Civil Liberties Union and others filed a lawsuit, J.G.G. v. Trump,<\/em> on behalf of five Venezuelan men seeking to block the president from invoking the law.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration\u2019s intent to use a wartime authority for immigration enforcement is as unprecedented as it is lawless,\u201d said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU\u2019s Immigrants\u2019 Rights Project and lead counsel in the lawsuit. \u201cIt may be the administration\u2019s most extreme measure yet, and that is saying a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n The five Venezuelans were accused of having links to Tren de Aragua but all deny being gang members. The lead plaintiff was arrested because an immigration officer \u201cerroneously suspected that J.G.G. was a Tren de Aragua member on account of his tattoos,\u201d according to the complaint<\/a>. J.G.G. is seeking asylum in the U.S. because he fears being killed in Venezuela where, he said, he was \u201carbitrarily imprisoned, beaten and tortured by Venezuelan police.\u201d<\/p>\n The five Venezuelans believed they faced an immediate risk of deportation. \u201cThe government\u2019s proclamation would allow agents to immediately put noncitizens on planes,\u201d according to the complaint<\/a>, adding that the law \u201ccannot be used here against nationals of a country \u2014 Venezuela \u2014 with whom the United States is not at war.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cHe wants to bypass any need to\u00a0provide evidence or to convince a judge\u00a0that someone is\u00a0actually\u00a0a gang member before deporting them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The judge agreed, saying that he believed the terms \u201cinvasion\u201d and \u201cpredatory incursion\u201d in the law \u201creally relate to hostile acts perpetrated by enemy nations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe president is invoking the Alien Enemies Act to try to dispense with due process. He wants to bypass any need to\u00a0provide evidence or to convince a judge\u00a0that someone is\u00a0actually\u00a0a gang member before deporting them,\u201d said Ebright. \u201cThe only reason to invoke such a power is to try to enable sweeping detentions and deportations of Venezuelans based on their ancestry, not on any gang activity that could be proved in immigration proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n