‘Nazis got better treatment’: Appeals court judges skeptical of Trump arguments to deport Venezuelans
A three-judge panel of federal appeals court judges appeared skeptical that Donald Trump’s administration could summarily deport immigrants inside the United States under the president’s use of the Alien Enemies Act.
During a hearing in Washington, D.C. Monday, deputy assistant attorney general Drew Ensign called a federal judge’s ruling that temporarily blocks those deportations an “utterly unprecedented” “intrusion” of his authority.
“Well, it’s an unprecedented action, as well,” replied Judge Patricia Millett, who was appointed by Barack Obama. “We are in unprecedented territory.”
According to Ensign, the administration has the authority under the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang without a notice that would allow them opportunity to challenge their removal, or whether they’re even members. Those immigrants are able to challenge their detentions through a typical habeas corpus petition process, Ensign said.
But, as Judge Millet pointed out, the initial plaintiffs in the legal challenge in front of them had filed a complaint before Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act,and before anyone boarded the planes.
“The proclamation was signed and people were put on planes immediately without knowing the basis, let alone an opportunity to file a suit,” she said. “Am I wrong about anything I just said?”
The administration loaded people into planes without any avenue to challenge what was happening to them, she said.
“Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act … and they had a hearing first before people were removed,” she said. “[Venezuelans] weren’t told where they were going … They had no opportunity to file habeas or any type of petition … What’s factually wrong about what I said?”
“Well, your honor, we certainly dispute the Nazi analogy,” Ensign replied.
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the fourth time in U.S. history at some point before three planes with dozens of Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador’s notorious prison. Ensign told the court he did not have a timeline from when the Alien Enemies Act was invoked and when people were put on planes.
Trump’s order states that “all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of [Tren de Aragua], are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”
The administration admitted in court filings that “many” of the people sent to El Salvador did not have criminal records, and attorneys and family members say their clients and relatives — some of whom were in the country with legal permission and have upcoming court hearings on their asylum claims — have nothing to do with Tren de Aragua.
Trump’s reliance on the centuries-old wartime law marked its first use since the Second World War, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt designated Japanese, German and Italian nationals as “alien enemies.”
More than 31,000 people and their families were interned at camps and military facilities across the U.S., according to the National Archives.
