A court rules illegal Trump's use of the Foreign Enemies Act to support deportations.
The US president invoked the 19th-century law to accelerate his campaign against migrants.
WashingtonDonald Trump illegally used the Alien Enemies Act when he invoked it in March to accelerate his deportation campaign. A federal appeals court ruled this Tuesday (already Wednesday in Catalonia) in a new judicial setback for the president, just after the ruling. the same day that another appeals court ruled that the president violated federal law when he sent the National Guard to Los Angeles. Despite the cold shower, the ruling will likely return to the Supreme Court for a decision.
In a split ruling, the court ruled that Trump cannot move forward with using this wartime law to deport people from the states of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Last March Trump invoked this 1789 rule to apply it to Venezuelans and Salvadorans. who, according to the administration, allegedly belong to the criminal gangs El Tren de Aragua and MS-13. In a January executive order, the Republican designated both sides as terrorist groups and has since considered them a threat to the country. Under this pretext, he invoked the 19th-century law, which, among other things, allows for the exemption of those targeted by it from prosecution.
The most recent precedent: World War II
The 17th Century Rule is a law that was created in times of war to quickly expel migrants deemed to be collaborators of enemy countries from the country. When the US president invoked it, he was declaring an invasion by members of the Venezuelan gang El Tren de Aragua. Before Trump, the law had only been used three times. The last time was during World War II to detain and expel Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants.
The application of the rule has been the source of several conflicts, including the controversy over the deportation flight that sent more than 200 Salvadorans and Venezuelans to the Cecot mega-prison of the Nayib Bukele regimeSalvadoran Kilmar Ábrego García, whom Trump now wants to deport to Uganda, was one of the Salvadorans on the flight whom the administration acknowledged it had deported "in error." Ábrego García had been held at Cecot until he was returned to the US in June, but it wasn't until two weeks ago that he was reunited with his family. The next day, he was detained again by immigration agents and threatened with deportation, this time to Uganda.
Lack of due process
Beyond the issue of migrant rights, the application of the Enemies of Aliens Act has also become one of the major legal battles over the right to due process during detention. The law allows for the rapid deportation of those to whom it applies, without due process. That is, they lack access to a hearing before a judge.
In May, Stephen Miller, advisor to the president and one of the ideologues behind the deportation campaign, argued that the White House was also considering suspending the right to a fair trial.habeas corpus"A lot of it will depend on whether the courts do the right thing or not," Miller said.habeas corpusIt is a fundamental right that protects the freedom of individuals against illegal or arbitrary detention.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States has decided on the case after the month of May the Supreme prevented Trump from reviving the law. The high court temporarily blocked the rule while sending it back to the Court of Appeals to decide the underlying issues in the case, including whether the president's action was legal.
The Fifth Circuit opinion, written by Judge Leslie Southwick and joined by Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez, now concludes that there was no "predatory incursion" by members of the El Tren de Aragua gang, as Trump had previously argued. "We conclude that the findings do not support that an invasion or predatory incursion occurred. We therefore conclude that petitioners are likely to demonstrate that the AEA was improperly invoked," Southwick wrote.
