Block on Venezuelan deportations upheld by US appeals court

David Voreacos, Chris Strohm and Zoe Tillman, Bloomberg News on Mar 26, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration was dealt a setback in its immigration crackdown when a federal appeals court upheld a temporary block on the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.

The decision on Wednesday may prompt the administration to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene amid a growing clash between Trump and the courts over efforts to implement his political agenda.

In a 2-1 decision, an appellate court panel upheld a judge’s order blocking President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime statute used just three times in U.S. history.

The panel ruled that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg correctly put a temporary block on use of the wartime statute to deport suspected members of Tren de Aragua to a prison in El Salvador. But the majority said the Trump administration could still prevail later in litigation brought on behalf of five of the Venezuelans.

“There is neither jurisdiction nor reason for this court to interfere at this very preliminary stage,” U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett said in her ruling in the Circuit Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia.

The Justice Department could ask the full circuit court to reconsider the panel’s decision or request the U.S. Supreme Court to immediately intervene.

The ruling paired Millett, one of the court’s more liberal-leaning judges, who was appointed by Barack Obama, with one of its conservatives, Justice Karen Henderson, who was nominated by George H.W. Bush. Justice Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, dissented. Each wrote separate opinions.

The dispute involves a Trump proclamation, issued just hours before the deportations, that accused gang members of an “invasion” or “predatory incursion.” Trump said they conduct irregular warfare that benefits Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and they are terrorists who use drug trafficking as a weapon against U.S. citizens.

Justice Department lawyers argued Boasberg improperly intruded on the president’s authority to declare an invasion and remove “dangerous aliens who pose grave threats.” They say he has impeded Trump’s ability to conduct foreign affairs and national security.

In her opinion, Henderson said that at this early stage in the litigation, the government “has yet to show a strong likelihood of prevailing.” But she said the U.S. will have “ample opportunity to prove its case and its evidence should be afforded the requisite deference due the president’s national security judgments.”

Walker, in his dissent, said the government has shown that Boasberg’s orders “threaten irreparable harm to delicate negotiations with foreign powers on matters concerning national security.”

He also said the five Venezuelans who sued should have brought their claims in federal court in Texas, not Washington.

The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward Foundation.

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