US appeals court weighs Trump’s deportations under Alien Enemies Act

The United States President Donald Trump has requested that a federal appeals court uphold the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in order to deport undocumented immigrants.

However, one judge on the court appeared to be angry at the lack of due process under Trump’s use of the law at a tense hearing on Monday in Washington, DC.

Judge Patricia Millett told the court, “Nazis received better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than has happened here.”

We certainly disagree with the Nazi analogy, said government lawyer Drew Ensign, who represents the Trump administration.

The District of Columbia Circuit’s US Court of Appeals is made up of three federal judges.

Democratic President Barack Obama appointed her. Republicans chose Judge Justin Walker and Judge Karen Henderson, both of whom were under former president George W. Bush.

The Trump administration has requested a two-week injunction from the appeals court in a bid to stop the Alien Enemies Act, a law used only three times before during World War II.

The act was last used to imprison Japanese Americans and other residents who had ties to US adversaries at the time during World War II. Later, the US government apologized and offered compensation to Japanese Americans.

Trump, however, has attempted to use the law to bolster his executive branch’s authority and expedite the deportation of “criminal” immigrants. He referred to illegal entry into the US as an “invasion” that legitimizes wartime powers.

More than 200 people, the majority of them Venezuelan men, were deported to El Salvador on March 15 as evidenced by the Alien Enemies Act, where their heads were shaved and held in maximum-security cells.

The men are members of the Tren de Aragua gang, and the US government has given them nearly $6 million to go to prison abroad.

However, that accusation is refuted by family, friends, and members of the community who knew some of the deported people. Deportees were denied their due process rights because they were not given the opportunity to prove their innocence in court, according to advocates.

According to the Reuters news agency, one man’s attorneys claimed he had been misidentified as a gang member based on a crown tattoo he had.

The lawyers claim that the lawyers’ claim that the alleged reference to the Real Madrid football team was made in response to US immigration officials. Former professional football player and head coach of children’s teams were the men.

One of the women who was swept up in the deportation flight on March 15 also sworn a oath to a court-ordered statement that she heard a US official say “we can’t take off.”

Judge James Boasberg issued an order on March 15 to halt all removals under the Alien Enemies Act and return all deportation flights to the US, but the Trump administration has been accused of ignoring it.

Boasberg and his allies, however, have claimed that Trump and his allies abused their positions by interfering with national security matters.

The government lawyer, Ensign, addressed that argument to the appeals court on Monday. Boasberg’s administration was described as an “unprecedented and significant intrusion into the executive branch’s powers.”

Judge Millett instead argued that President Trump had overstepped his bounds.

She said, “The president must follow the laws and the Constitution like everyone else.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney was contacted about the merits of the complaint by Walker, the judge who was appointed by Trump.

He questioned why the ACLU had started the immigration proceedings in Washington, DC rather than Texas, where the immigrants had been detained prior to being deported.

Walker remarked to attorney Lee Gelernt, “You could have filed the exact same complaint you filed here in Texas district court.”

Gelernt responded, “We don’t know if everyone is in Texas.” The Trump administration tried to obstruct its actions in organizing the mass deportations, the ACLU attorney claimed.

Gelernt claimed that “all of this has been done in secret.”

However, Walker claimed that there was little precedent for what he termed “a national security operation with foreign implications” to be blocked by a court order like Boasberg’s.

Source: Aljazeera