A federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Saturday from enforcing deportations under an 18th-century law that the president had invoked just hours earlier to expedite the removal of Venezuelan gang members from the U.S.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued the order immediately, citing concerns that the government was already deporting migrants deemed newly removable under President Donald Trump’s proclamation. Some had already been flown to detention facilities in El Salvador and Honduras. Earlier in the week, El Salvador had agreed to accept up to 300 migrants whom the administration had labeled as gang members.
“I do not believe I can wait any longer and am required to act,” Boasberg stated during a Saturday evening hearing on a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Democracy Forward. He emphasized that a brief delay in deportations would not harm the government, as the individuals remained in custody, and ordered that any planes in transit be turned back.
The ruling came just hours after Trump asserted that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was infiltrating the U.S. and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—a wartime measure granting presidents broad authority to accelerate mass deportations.
