Liberal “resistance” judges are once again siding with foreign gangs. A federal appeals court has struck down President Donald Trump’s attempt to use a centuries-old wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants accused of ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, dealing a major blow to his immigration agenda.
In a 2-1 ruling, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s March 2025 proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which historically has been applied only in times of declared war or armed conflict. The administration argued that the influx of Venezuelan migrants amounted to an “invasion,” but the court dismissed the claim as factually and legally unsupported.
“A country’s encouraging its residents and citizens to enter this country illegally is not the modern-day equivalent of sending an armed, organized force to occupy, to disrupt or to otherwise harm the United States,” Judge Leslie H. Southwick wrote for the panel’s majority. “There is no finding that this mass immigration was an armed, organized force or forces.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the emergency petition on behalf of detained migrants, praised the decision. “The Trump administration’s unprecedented use of a wartime statute during peacetime was properly rejected by the court,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the A.C.L.U. who argued the case in front of the appeals court. “This is an enormous victory for the rule of law, making clear that the president cannot simply declare a military emergency and then invoke whatever powers he wants.”
Judge Andrew S. Oldham, a Trump appointee, dissented, accusing the majority of treating the president “as if he were an ordinary litigant” rather than the commander in chief responsible for national security. While the panel acknowledged that some gang members might be acting with Venezuela’s government, it found no evidence sufficient to justify the use of the Alien Enemies Act.
The case began in April when the ACLU sought to block deportations from a Texas detention facility. After a brief Supreme Court order requiring time for migrants to contest removal, the matter returned to the Fifth Circuit. With this decision, legal observers expect the dispute to head back to the Supreme Court for a final test of the president’s power to wield an 18th-century law against modern immigration challenges.
