President Donald Trump has repeatedly been smacked down by various federal judges in his efforts to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to conduct mass deportations of individuals the administration claims to be gang members. But he's finally found a judge who's willing to adopt his interpretation of the law — and it's a judge he appointed.
In an opinion issued on Tuesday, U.S. Judge Stephanie Haines of the Western District of Pennsylvania ruled that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua counts as a hostile invading force for the purposes of the 18th-century law, and allows Trump to carry out mass deportations.
The act has not been used since World War II and has historically only applied to invading military forces.
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In the opinion, Haines noted that she is not settling the matter of whether Trump can use other laws to conduct mass deportations, whether people removed under the act are entitled to habeas relief, or whether the law applies to people who have simply entered the country unlawfully without any relation to a "Foreign Terrorist Organization." She further ruled that affected individuals are entitled to three weeks of notice before deportations.
However, she concluded, members of Tren de Aragua, which Trump designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization in a separate executive action in February, meet the criteria for people who can be removed under the law.
"This Court reaches the following definition of 'predatory incursion' under the AEA: 'a hostile entry into the United States by a cohesive group of individuals, such as a military detachment or a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, who are united by a common goal of causing significant disruption to the public safety — whether that be the safety of persons, property, or pecuniary interests — of those within the United States,'" wrote Haines. "The Court finds that that definition is faithful to the meaning of 'predatory incursion' in 1798, but it also accounts for new applications given 'changes in the world.'"
Haines' decision is at odds with other federal judges who have found the application of the law invalid concerning people accused of being members of foreign gangs.
However, last month, the Supreme Court, in an unsigned opinion, lifted a lower court stay by Judge James Boasberg prohibiting the use of the act for deportations, though they did not rule on the merits and emphasized affected people had the right to be notified and seek review of their deportation before being removed.
