Appellate panel rejects Trump’s deportations under Alien Enemies Act – The Washington Post
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Immigration
Federal appellate panel rejects Trump’s deportations under wartime law
The 2-1 decision from the panel, made up of judges from one of the nation’s most conservative appellate courts, follows a string of similar rulings from lower courts across the country. Updated, September 3, 2025 at 10:42 a.m. EDT, today at 10:42 a.m. EDT, 6 min
Demonstrators cheer as a person exits U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, following their immigration check-in on Tuesday. (Jim Slosiarek / AP)
By Jeremy Roebuck
A federal appellate court ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump unlawfully invoked a centuries-old wartime law toswiftlydeport Venezuelan migrants, blocking one of his administration’s most contentious immigration initiatives and teeing up a legal battle sure to end up before the Supreme Court.
A divided three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit rejected Trump’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to remove alleged members of the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang, concluding that their presence in the country did not amount to the type of invasion or “predatory incursion” lawmakers envisioned when they drafted the statute allowing fast-tracked deportations.
The 2-1 decision from the panel, made up of judges from one of the nation’s most conservative appellate courts, follows a string of similar rulings from lower courts across the country that have almost uniformly rejected Trump’s invocation of the law on similar grounds. However, the case the 5th Circuit decided on Tuesday is widely viewed as the one most likely to reach the Supreme Court first, and several other appellate courts had paused their consideration of similar cases while awaiting the circuit court’s ruling.
Writing for the majority, Judge Leslie H. Southwick said Trump’s assertions that the Venezuelan government had encouraged Tren de Aragua members to immigrate to the United States illegally to traffic drugs and commit acts of violence did not amount to the type of military conflict that Congress envisioned when it drafted the law. The Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked three times before — during the War of 1812 and both World Wars.
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