A federal appeals court declined 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 US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit wouldn't block a March 15 order temporarily prohibiting deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the AP reports. Invoking the law for the first time since World War II, President 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 US District Judge James Boasberg blocked more deportations and ordered planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to return to the US. The planes did not turn around. Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan noncitizens who were being held in Texas. 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 Barack Obama, a Democrat, said Boasberg's order merely froze the status quo "until weighty and unprecedented legal issues can be addressed" in an upcoming hearing. Henderson, who was nominated by Republican George H.W. Bush, said the court's ruling doesn't prevent the government from arresting and detaining migrants under Trump's proclamation. Walker said the plaintiffs' claims belong in Texas, where they are detained, per the AP. Boasberg has vowed to determine whether the government defied his order on the flights. The administration has invoked a state secrets privilege and refused to give Boasberg any additional information about the deportations.
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