by WorldTribune Staff, May 13, 2025 Real World News

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that President Donald Trump can invoke the Alien Enemies Act to remove members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Within hours of invoking the law in mid-March, the Trump Administration used it to deport more than 100 migrants to a megaprison in El Salvador.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines ruled that Trump is within his rights to deport members of a foreign terrorist organization — a designation he has made for Tren de Aragua.

Haines, a Trump appointee, emphasized her “unflagging obligation is to apply the law as written.”

“Having done its job, the Court now leaves it to the Political Branches of the government, and ultimately to the people who elect those individuals, to decide whether the laws and those executing them continue to reflect their will,” Haines wrote in her 43-page ruling.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed lawsuits across the country in an effort to stop Trump from deporting gang members, called on the Supreme Court to immediately take up the issue.

Haines’s ruling lifts a temporary order she issued last month blocking the government from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport any migrant detained in the Western District of Pennsylvania. The government can now proceed, so long as they provide 21-days’ notice to migrants in both English and Spanish, the judge said.

“The Court recognizes that it may need to conduct further analysis and consider additional issues related to the specifics of notice in the future,” Haines wrote. “However, at this preliminary stage of this case, the Court finds that the foregoing is appropriate and complies with the law.”

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  Federal judge: Trump can invoke Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan gang members, WorldTribune.com