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 upheld 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.
Henderson, who was nominated by Republican President George H.W. Bush, said the court’s ruling doesn’t prevent the Trump administration from detaining migrants.
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