NPR | Wednesday, September 3, 2025 
Appeals court blocks Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans

A federal appeals court late Tuesday blocked President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans the administration says are gang members, likely setting up a legal clash at the U.S. Supreme Court. Earlier this year, Trump invoked the 18th century wartime power to help streamline the deportations of Venezuelans alleged to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Since then, the use of this power has attracted a slew of legal challenges, including two prior Supreme Court decisions. But the high court has yet to directly address the larger question of whether Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act is legal in the first place. “The Trump administration’s use of a wartime statute during peacetime to regulate immigration was rightly shut down by the court,” said Lee Gelernt, who argued the case for the ACLU. “This is a critically important decision reining in the administration’s view that it can simply declare an emergency without any oversight by the courts.” The ruling barred the use of the act in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, which fall under the 5th Circuit’s purview. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department will almost certainly appeal to the wider appeals court or the Supreme Court. More than 200 men were removed from the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act and sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador where they were kept for months before being released as a part of a prisoner exchange with…Read more