A federal judge ruled Tuesday that President Trump can invoke the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to remove Tren de Aragua members but determined the administration has provided insufficient notice before carrying out the deportations.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines’s ruling contrasts with several other federal judges who have ruled Trump illegally invoked the wartime statute. She says Trump is within his rights to deport members of a foreign terrorist organization — a designation he has made for Tren de Aragua.
Haines, a Trump appointee, emphasized her “unflagging obligation is to apply the law as written.”
“Having done its job, 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 executing them continue to reflect their will,” Haines wrote in her 43-page ruling.
The new split comes as the American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed a wave of lawsuits across the country challenging Trump’s use of the AEA, calls on the Supreme Court to immediately take up the issue and swiftly provide a nationwide resolution.
