A federal judge in New York ruled on Tuesday that the Alien Enemies Law “was not invoked validly” by the Trump administration when he chose to deport the members of Aragua’s train, marking the second time that a judge has considered the use of the administration of the illegal AEA.
The United States District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, on Tuesday, granted a preliminary judicial order in the case of two plaintiffs identified by their initials, GFF and JGO, who were removed from the planes to El Salvador and transferred back to New York from Texas, where they had been arrested for the alignment of the alignment with the Venezuelan gang Train of Aragua.
Tuesday’s ruling occurs after a federal judge appointed by Trump in Texas last week permanently blocked the Trump administration to stop, transfer or eliminate Venezuelans aimed at deportation under the alien enemies law in the Law of the Southern District of Texas, dictating that the invocation of the administration of the AEA “exceeds the scope” of the law.
The Trump administration has invoked the Alien Enemies Law, a 18th -century war authority used to eliminate non -citizens with little or less due process, to deport alleged members of migrant gangs by arguing that Train of Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invasing the United States.
The United States Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision last month, raised a court order issued by a federal judge in Washington, DC, who had stopped deportations under the AEA, but said that detainees should receive due process to challenge their elimination in the district where they were arrested.
GFF and JGO “have not received notice of what they allegedly did to join TDA, when they joined and what they did in the United States, or anywhere else, to share or promote the illicit objectives of the ADD,” said the opinion of Judge Hellerstein. “Without that evidence, the petitioners are subject to the elimination of the dictation of the Executive Solo, in contravention of the AEA and the constitutional requirements of due process.”
Hellerstein also said that Trump was not justified when he invoked Alien enemies law.
A Salvadoran soldier is guard, since the Cecot logo is seen in the prison of the terrorism confinement center, in Tecoluca, El Salvador on April 4, 2025.
Jose Cabezas/Reuters
“I argue that the predicates for the presidential proclamation that TDA has been involved in a” war “,” invasion “or a” predatory raid “of the United States does not exist,” said Hellerstein’s opinion. “There is nothing in the AEA that justifies the finding that refugees migrating from Venezuela, or TDA gangsters that infiltrate migrants, are dedicated to an ‘invasion’ or ‘predatory mandate’.”
Judge Hellerstein established a hearing in the matter for May 21.
