By Sara Machi
March 15, 2025 / 10:41 PM CDT / CBS Chicago
President Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to speed up the deportation of illegal immigrants linked to a violent Venezuelan gang, but just hours after issuing the order, a federal judge blocked the move, and a legal expert in Chicago said the battle will end up before the U.S. Supreme Court soon.
In a proclamation Saturday, Mr. Trump invoked the 2277-year-old wartime law to order the swift removal of anyone affiliated with the Venezulan gang ‘Tren de Aragua,’ specifying they’d be subject to “immediate apprehension, detention, and removal.”
The president directed the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice to “apprehend, restrain, secure, and remove every” Venezuelan migrant, 14 or older, who is deemed to be part of Tren de Aragua and who lacks U.S. citizenship or permanent residency.
Saturday night, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from removing immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act, preventing the deportations for fourteen days, in response to a federal civil lawsuit filed Saturday by a group of five Venezuelan men in immigration custody in Texas and New York local jails.
The judge said any planes that were in the air at the time of his decision would have to be turned around.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 21.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., by attorneys with the ACLU and Democracy Forward argues the law is strictly a wartime measure that has only been used three times in American history: during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II.
CBS News Chicago Legal Analyst Irv Miller predicted the legal battle will quickly move to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I suspect that we will get a quick decision from the United States Supreme Court on this one,” Miller said.
Miller said the lawsuit challenging Mr. Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act will be an interesting case to watch, given the unprecedented nature of his action. The law has never been used to target migrants from countries with which the U.S. is not actively at war, nor with the premise that a non-state actor is staging an invasion or incursion of the U.S.
The Alien Enemies Act was last used in World War II to track and detain foreigners from Italy, Germany and Japan.
But the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela and the Alien Enemies Act has never been used to in this way, setting up a battle over the issues of national safety versus constitutional rights like fair treatment and the right to a hearing.
“You, as a person in this country – not necessarily even a citizen – you have due process rights, and therefore you have to be treated fairly by the government. That’s what government must respect, and that’s why due process is such a fundamental right,” Miller said.
The next hearing in the case is set for Friday.
