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Appeals Court Won't Lift Admin Ban 03/27 06:22
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court refused Wednesday to lift an
order barring the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants to El
Salvador under an 18th century wartime law.
A split three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit wouldn't block a March 15 order temporarily prohibiting
deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Invoking the law for the first time since World War II, President Donald
Trump's administration deported hundreds of people under a presidential
proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.
The Justice Department appealed after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg
blocked more deportations and ordered planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to
return to the U.S. That did not happen.
Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on
behalf of five Venezuelan noncitizens who were being held in Texas.
The case has become a flashpoint amid escalating tension between the White
House and the federal courts.
Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson and Patricia Millett voted to reject the
government's request to lift the order. Each wrote concurring opinions. Judge
Justin Walker, a Trump nominee, wrote a dissenting opinion.
Millett, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, said
Boasberg's order merely froze the status quo "until weighty and unprecedented
legal issues can be addressed" through an upcoming hearing.
"There is neither jurisdiction nor reason for this court to interfere at
this very preliminary stage or to allow the government to singlehandedly moot
the Plaintiffs' claims by immediately removing them beyond the reach of their
lawyers or the court."
Henderson, who was nominated by Republican President George H.W. Bush, said
the court's ruling doesn't prevent the government from arresting and detaining
migrants under Trump's proclamation.
"Lifting the injunctions risks exiling plaintiffs to a land that is not
their country of origin," she wrote. "Indeed, at oral argument before this
Court, the government in no uncertain terms conveyed that -- were the
injunction lifted -- it would immediately begin deporting plaintiffs without
notice."
Walker said the plaintiffs' claims belong in Texas, where they are detained.
"The Government has also shown that the district court's orders threaten
irreparable harm to delicate negotiations with foreign powers on matters
concerning national security," he wrote.
Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman, whose legal advocacy
group also represents the plaintiffs, said Wednesday's ruling is "an important
step for due process and the protection of the American people."
"President Trump is bound by the laws of this nation, and those laws do not
permit him to use wartime powers when the United States is not at war and has
not been invaded to remove individuals from the country with no process at
all," Perryman said in a statement.
Boasberg, the chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, has
vowed to determine whether the government defied his order to turn planes
around. The administration has invoked a "state secrets privilege" and refused
to give Boasberg any additional information about the deportations.
Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Boasberg. In a rare
statement, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said that "impeachment is
not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision."
The Alien Enemies Act allows noncitizens to be deported without the
opportunity for a hearing before an immigration or federal court judge.
Boasberg ruled that immigrants facing deportation must get an opportunity to
challenge their designations as alleged gang members. His ruling said there is
"a strong public interest in preventing the mistaken deportation of people
based on categories they have no right to challenge."
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