A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Wednesday upheld a judge’s order temporarily blocking President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan nationals that the federal government contends are Tren de Aragua gang members.
Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was silent during Monday’s arguments in the case, penned a concurring statement in which she seemed unimpressed with the federal government’s defense of Trump’s use of the 1798 law, which grants the president power to detain and expel “enemy aliens” when the United States is at war or under “invasion or predatory incursion.”