Appeals court hears arguments over Trump's invocation of Alien Enemies Act [View all]
Source: msn/ABC News
12h
A panel of judges at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the country's more conservative courts, heard arguments Monday over whether the Trump administration can invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants it considers to be part of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.
"This has been invoked three times only in major, major wars," argued ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt regarding the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process. "The government is now suggesting you can invoke it with a gang."
The Trump administration touched off a legal battle in March when it invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador by arguing that Tren de Aragua is a "hybrid criminal state" that is invading the United States.
In the multiple lawsuits the ACLU has helped bring against Trump's use of the AEA, the group has argued that the administration failed to prove that the presence of Tren de Aragua members amounts to a "predatory incursion" or a declared war as the text of the AEA outlines. "This was solely about war and serious military conflict at a size where we would respond with our military, and no one's suggesting that the military has or would respond here," Gelernt argued during Monday's hearing.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/appeals-court-hears-arguments-over-trumps-invocation-of-alien-enemies-act/ar-AA1HIoCI
5th Circuit.
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