Appeals Court Hears Appeal Regarding Alien Enemies Act Case -- Oral Argument Favored Trump Administration Approach

The Ninth Circuit decision in the National Guard case on a similar issue might be a preview on how this case sorts out.

I’ve written several times about President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) on March 15 with respect to “Tren de Aragua” (TdA) gang members from Venezuela. It was the premise upon which the “putative class action” was provisionally certified — and on that basis a nationwide injunction on an immigration matter was imposed by Judge Boasberg in Washington D.C. The Supreme Court later became involved and held that habeas cases filed by individuals in the process of being removed had to be filed in the district where they were held.

I covered the March 15 invocation of the AEA by the Administration and Judge Boasberg’s first orders here and here.

I went over the Supreme Court’s first entry into matter, setting aside Judge Boasberg’s TRO while leaving open many issues about “due process” in this article on April 11.

Because the Supreme Court held that challenges to the application of the AEA could only be filed where the subject was being detained, the action on these cases began to spread out to district courts around the country. The Northern and Southern Districts of Texas saw much of it because of ICE removal activities in those districts. The case heard yesterday by the Firth Circuit Court of Appeal, W.M.M v. Trump, involved an action filed in the Northern District assigned to Judge James Hendrix, a Trump appointee.

But a second Texas case, filed in the Southern District and assigned to Judge Fernando Rodriguez — another Trump appointee — was significant to yesterday’s oral argument.

Judge Rodriguez, in the matter of J.A.V v. Trump, granted summary judgment in favor of the TdA members, holding that the President’s factual findings set forth in the Proclamation invoking the AEA did not meet the definitions “invasion” or “predatory incursion” necessary to trigger the President’s authority under the AEA. I went through Judge Rogriguez’s lengthy opinion in defense of his finding in this article on May 7. The Administration appealed this decision by Judge Rodriguez to the Fifth Circuit where it is now pending.