Wartime Alien Enemies Act |  President invoked it to deport five Venezuelan nationals, calling them members of the Tren de Aragua  group, designated as Foreign Terrorist Organisation

Agencies WASHINGTON

A federal judge on Saturday barred the Donald Trump administration from deporting five Venezuelan nationals from the US under the 18th-century wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 hours after the order was issued. James E Boasberg, chief judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia, said he needed to issue his order immediately because the government was already flying migrants it claimed were newly deportable under Trump's proclamation to El Salvador and Honduras to be incarcerated there. The order  prevents the Venezuelans’ deportation for 14 days. El Salvador has already agreed this week to take up to 300 migrants that the Trump administration designated as “gang members”.

“Given the exigent circumstances that it [the court] has been made aware of this morning, it has determined that an immediate Order is warranted to maintain the status quo until a hearing can be set,” Boasberg wrote in his order. Boasberg’s decision comes in response to a lawsuit filed the same day by the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward. The organizations charge that the Trump administration unlawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act. In the lawsuit, ACLU and Democracy Forward argued the Act has been invoked only three times in the history of the US: the war of 1812, First World War and Second World War.

“It cannot be used here against nationals of a country – Venezuela – with whom the United States is not at war, which is not invading the United States and which has not launched a predatory incursion into the United States,” the lawsuit stated. “The government’s proclamation would allow agents to immediately put non-citizens on planes without any review of any aspect of the determination that they are alien enemies,” the lawsuit added

The ruling came hours after Trump claimed the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, was invading the United States and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a sweeping wartime authority that allows the President broader leeway on policy and executive action to speed up mass deportations. Authorities in several countries have reported arrests of Tren de Aragua members, even as Venezuela's government claims to have eliminated the criminal organisation.