(The Epoch Times)—A federal judge in Texas became the latest on June 9 to hold that President Donald Trump had misapplied the Alien Enemies Act in attempting to remove from the United States purported members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
In a 56-page opinion, U.S. District Judge David Briones said that Trump violated the Constitution’s guarantee of due process and failed to demonstrate that Tren de Aragua (TdA) was engaged in the type of invasion that allowed presidents to invoke the Act. His comments echoed those of three other federal judges but conflicted with at least one in Pennsylvania.
Briones’s permanent injunction compounded legal rulings that could prompt the Supreme Court to once again intervene on the issue. So far, the nation’s highest court has refrained from stating whether Trump invalidly invoked the law with a proclamation in March. Instead, it clarified the type of due process that Trump was required to provide those he seeks to remove from the country.
In March, the president described TdA as overtaking Venezuela and perpetrating “irregular warfare” against the United States, supporting the alleged goal of the Maduro regime to destabilize democracies in the region.
“[TdA] has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States,” his proclamation read.
Briones said even if Trump’s assertions about the gang are true, his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act would still be illegal. A “predatory incursion” or “invasion” under the Alien Enemies Act must involve a foreign government engaging in a militarized intrusion into the United States with the purpose of obtaining control over territory, Briones added.
“Mass illegal migration or criminal activities plainly do not fall within the [Alien Enemies Act’s] statutory boundaries,” he said.
Part of his opinion quoted U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez in the Southern District of Texas, who had also blocked the administration from carrying out deportations. Rodriguez said Trump’s use of the word “invasion” didn’t comport with its meaning when the legislation was passed early in American history.
Besides Rodriguez and Briones, two other federal judges in Colorado and New York have said Trump’s use of the law was illegal. In Pennsylvania, however, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines’s decision supported the administration’s use of the law.
In an opinion issued on May 13, Haines noted that TdA has been designated a foreign terrorist organization. That designation, she said, “heavily supports the conclusions … that TdA is a cohesive group united by a common goal of causing significant disruption to the public safety of the United States.”
She said, however, that the administration had provided insufficient notice of deportation to detainees and that it couldn’t remove the Venezuelan national who had brought the lawsuit unless it provided 21 days’ notice, among other things.
The administration has maintained that the judiciary is intruding on Trump’s authority as the head of the executive branch.
In the Central District of California, federal Judge John Holcomb pushed back on the extent to which the administration sought to avoid judicial review of Trump’s authority under the law. The judge’s opinion also suggested he believes his colleagues in the federal judiciary had gone too far in attempting to define incursion or invasion.
“Because the AEA permits the President to decide whether those events have occurred, the AEA necessarily also grants to the President the discretion to decide what those terms mean,” Holcomb said last week.
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Mexican President Scheinbaum has made it clear that this is an invasion, to reclaim the western US, calling it occupied Mexican land. Regarless. Article three judges have no jurisdiction.
Immigration and Nationality Act
This strips the Article III courts’ jurisdiction over immigration cases. This was passed in 1952, and has been amended several times. (Authority: Article III, Section II, Clause 2) To ask the Supreme (Article III) Court to rule that it is itself in violation of the Act is a pipe dream as they have been usurping the powers of the other two branches since Marbury vs. Madison (1803). The solution is to impeach each judge in violation. The President is required by his oath to defy and ignore such unconstitutional orders, in order to “…preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
8675310On September 30, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the “ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM AND IMMIGRANT RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1996” Under Sec 302, it states that illegal aliens can be “removed from the United States without further hearing or review”.
Its time for a popular uprising against the black-robed tyrants who are forcing national suicide. These judges are the ones who are recycling predatory psychopaths back into our neighborhoods. Activist liberal judges are agents of Chaos. They pair up with Soros DAs to undermine the rule of law and spread lawlessness.
Purge the judiciary.
Well, how does this opinion make any sense given the latest riots in LA where they are destroying property, assaulting officers while flying the flag of other countries. Looks to me to be “ILLEGAL” Aliens Enemies Act in full daylight flying the flag of other nations. Isn’t that what a foreign military does when it conquers new land? What kind of mental gymnastics does it take for Judge to not see it as such.
What if independent pirates, without a nation state sponsor, were raiding the coast and robbing, raping, selling drugs and killing. What if the moved inland and took over some apartment buildings. Would they be Alien Enemies”?
Please
I did not write “Please”. I wrote “Agreed”. Please correct this.
PDT needs to tell all these district judges to go pack sand
Its time for a popular uprising against the black-robed tyrants who are forcing national suicide. These judges are the ones who are recycling predatory psychopaths back into our neighborhoods. Activist liberal judges are agents of Chaos. They pair up with Soros DAs to undermine the rule of law and spread lawlessness.
Purge the judiciary.
Illegal aliens are the enemy.
Just look at LA.
Activist judges present a CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER to America and must be removed.