Court Bloches Trump Use of 1798 Law for deportations of Venezuelan gangs

A federal court of appeal ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration cannot accelerate the deportations of migrants accused of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren of Aragua using a law on 18th century.

In a 2-1 decision, the Fifth Circuit Court of United States has shaved with the lawyers for immigrant rights and the lower court judges which argued that the extraterrestrial enemies law of 1798 was not created to be used against gangs like Tren of Aragua.

“The use by the Trump administration of a status in wartime during peacetime to regulate immigration was rightly closed by the court,” said Lee Genernt, who pleaded the case for the American Civil Liberties Union. “This is an extremely important decision in the point of view of the administration that she can simply declare an emergency without any surveillance of the courts.”

The Act respecting extraterrestrial enemies was previously used only three times in the history of the United States, and everything came during the wars declared during the War of 1812 and the two world wars.

Boasberg authorized to reign over the deportations of Cecot migrants after the decision of the Court of Appeal

A Federal Court of Appeal prevented Trump’s administration from using the extraterrestrial enemies law of 1798 to accelerate the deportations of the alleged members of the Gang Tren of Aragua. (Getty Images)

The Trump administration said that the courts could not guess the determination of the president that Tren of Aragua was linked to the government of Venezuela and represented a danger to the United States, which, according to him, justified the law.

The administration expelled the alleged members of Tren of Aragua to a mega-prison in Salvador where the officials argued, the American courts could not order their release.

More than 250 of the expelled migrants returned to Venezuela under an agreement announced in July.

In a decision 2-1, the court granted the preliminary injunction requested by the complainants because they “found no invasion or predatory incursion” in this case.

The video shows an American military drug boat, killing 11 alleged venezuelans thirty of Aragua narco-terrorists

The guards escort the detainees would have linked criminal organizations to Cecot on March 16, 2025 in Tecoleca, El Salvador. (Salvadoran government via Getty images)

The court’s decision blocks the deportations of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The majority opinion said that Trump’s allegations about Tren of Aragua do not respond to the historic levels of the national conflict to which the congress provided when the law was approved.

“A country encouraging its residents and citizens to enter this country illegally is the modern equivalent of the sending of an armed force and organized to occupy, disrupt or harm otherwise in the United States,” the judges of the American circuit Leslie Southwick and Irma Carrillo Ramirez wrote.

In a dissent, the American circuit judge Andrew Oldham argued that the majority was Trump’s conduct in foreign affairs and national security, which are regions where the courts often grant great deference to the president.

The secretary of the Ministry of Internal Security, Kristi Noem, speaks during a visit to Cecot on March 26, 2025 in Tecoleca, El Salvador. (Alex Brandon-Pool / Getty Images)

Click here to obtain the Fox News app

“The majority approach in this case is not only unprecedented – it is contrary to more than 200 years of previous,” wrote Oldham.

The Trump administration obtained a legal victory in the decision on Tuesday, the judges judge the procedures used by those responsible to advise the prisoners under the Act respecting extraterrestrial enemies on their legal rights.

The decision may be on appeal to the full fifth circuit or directly at the United States Supreme Court, which should make the ultimate decision in this case.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.