A federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged migrant gang members is lawful, but determined that the administration has provided insufficient notice before deporting migrants under the proclamation.
U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Haines’ ruling stands in contrast to two other federal judges who have ruled that Trump’s use of the AEA for deportations is unlawful.
The Trump administration has invoked the Alien Enemies Act — an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to carry out deportations by proclaiming that migrant gang members constitute a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
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Haines, a Trump appointee, said she found that the proclamation “complies with AEA,” but said that the Trump administration “must provide greater notice to those subject to removal under the AEA than they are currently providing.”
In her ruling, Judge Haines said that the declarations submitted by the Trump administration to the court “indicate that there is factual basis for President Trump’s conclusions in the Proclamation” and pointed to the designation made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization.
As a result, Judge Haines said she found that the proclamation meets the definition of a “predatory incursion” under the AEA.
Haines also said she will afford “substantial deference to the conclusion” by Trump that TdA is “acting at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela.”
“It would be intolerable that courts, without the relevant information, should review and perhaps nullify actions of the Executive taken on information properly held in secret,” Judge Haines said.
However, the judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot remove the petitioner, a Venezuelan man in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody identified as A.S.R., unless he is given 21 days notice and “an opportunity to be heard.” Haines added the notice to A.S.R. needs to be in English and Spanish and must clearly “articulate the fact that he is subject to removal” under the AEA.
A.S.R., according to the government, was moved to a detention center in Texas last month.
Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement to ABC News that the ACLU disagrees with the judge’s ruling on the use of the AEA.
“The court properly rejected the government’s argument that they can remove people with only 12 hours’ notice,” said Gelernt. “But we disagree with the court’s ruling that the Alien Enemies Act can be used during peacetime.”
In her ruling, Judge Haines said the case “implicates significant issues.”
MORE: Judge extends block on deporting alleged gang members under Alien Enemies Act
“In resolving those issues, this Court’s unflagging obligation is to apply the law as written,” Haines wrote in her conclusion. “The court now leaves it to the Political Branches of the government, and ultimately to the people who elect those individuals to decide whether the laws and those executive them continue to reflect their will.”
Earlier this month, a Trump-appointed federal judge blocked the Trump administration from deporting migrants under the AEA in Southern District of Texas, ruling that its invocation of the AEA “exceeds the scope” of the law.
A week later, a federal judge in New York ruled that the AEA was “not validly invoked” by the Trump administration when it sought to deport two alleged Tren de Aragua members from that state.
Federal judge in Pennsylvania rules that Trump’s invocation of AEA is lawful originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
