NEW YORK — Another federal judge has issued a scathing rejection of President Donald Trump’s use of a wartime power to deport Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador with little due process.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a Clinton appointee, blocked the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport anyone located in his southern New York district.
Federal Judge’s Ruling on Deportations
And he lamented the plight of more than 200 men whom the administration has already sent to an infamous Salvadoran anti-terrorism prison known for human rights abuses.
“The destination, El Salvador, a country paid to take our aliens, is neither the country from which the aliens came, nor to which they wish to be removed,” the judge wrote in a 22-page decision Tuesday. “But they are taken there, and there to remain, indefinitely, in a notoriously evil jail, unable to communicate with counsel, family or friends.”
Further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act would be “unlawful,” Hellerstein wrote.
Legal Backlash Against Trump’s Actions
He is the latest federal judge to chide the administration for its use of the act, which gives the president the power to quickly expel foreign invaders.
Last week, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas held that Trump’s use of the AEA was “unlawful.” In Colorado last month, a Biden-appointed federal judge found that the administration had “improperly” used the act against alleged members of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.
Like the judges in Texas and Colorado, Hellerstein wrote that Trump exceeded his authority when he invoked the 227-year-old law to target alleged members of the gang.
Due Process Concerns
“There is nothing in the AEA that justifies a finding that refugees migrating from Venezuela, or TdA gangsters who infiltrate the migrants, are engaged in an ‘invasion’ or ‘predatory incursion,’” Hellerstein wrote.
Rather than provide a “bare bones form letter,” Hellerstein said, the administration must file a complaint in federal court, advising the individual of the “acts he committed that justify his removal,” and it must give the person a “reasonable amount of time” to file a petition challenging his or her detention.
In noting the importance of due process, Hellerstein cited two cases in which the Trump administration has been ordered to seek the return of people they have improperly deported to El Salvador.
This critique by a federal judge adds to the growing legal challenges against the Trump administration’s immigration policies, highlighting concerns over due process and jurisdiction.
