ACLU sues to prevent Trump admin from deporting alien enemies in wake of SCOTUS decision

The U.S. Supreme Court sided Monday with President Donald Trump, lifting an Obama judge's order that temporarily blocked the president's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport suspected terrorists who have stolen into the homeland.

While Trump called it a "great day for justice in America!" and Attorney General Pam Bondi said the decision was "a landmark victory for the rule of law," the fight was apparently not over. The high court afforded alien enemies and their leftist champions another opportunity to challenge removals under the act by the Trump administration, explaining that their lawsuits must be brought where they are being held — not in Washington, D.C.

The American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union seized upon that opportunity on Tuesday, filing a lawsuit in a Democratic enclave on behalf of a pair of military-age Venezuelan nationals fit for removal under the Alien Enemies Act.

One of the illegal aliens is a supposedly non-straight 21-year-old Venezuelan national who entered the U.S. in May 2024 and was subsequently identified by the Department of Homeland Security as an "associate/affiliate of Tren de Aragua." The other is a 32-year-old Venezuelan who stole into the U.S. in 2022, allegedly because his political activism back home jeopardized his safety. Both illegal aliens were parties to the ACLU's original lawsuit targeting the administration's use of the AEA.

The Trump administration is targeting Venezuelan nationals who are members of the terrorist organization, 'are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States.'

The ACLU has asked a Clinton appointee, U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein, to assume jurisdiction, to block the Trump administration from removing the illegal aliens under the act, and to certify the Venezuelan duo as representatives of a class of illegal aliens.

A judge ordered the Trump administration to refrain from ousting the two men before a hearing Wednesday morning, as it had with hundreds of others under the AEA in March, reported The Hill.

The lawsuit claims that Trump's proclamation "contorts the plain language" of the 1798 law; the AEA "plainly only applies to warlike actions"; Venezuelan nationals are not invading the U.S.; Venezuela "has not launched a predatory incursion" into the country; "'mass illegal immigration' or criminal activities, as described in the Proclamation, plainly do not fall within the statutory boundaries"; and the use of the AEA has caused and will continue to cause the apparent alien enemies harm.

In his March 15 proclamation titled "Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act Regarding the Invasion of the United States by Tren De Aragua," Trump stated that Tren de Aragua — which his administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization — "is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States."

"TdA is undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela," added the president.

Contrary to the suggestion in the lawsuit, the Trump administration is targeting Venezuelan nationals who are members of the terrorist organization, "are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies."

The ACLU is, therefore, pushing for a class action lawsuit against the administration on behalf of suspected foreign terrorists.

The New York Civil Liberties Union said in a statement on the liberal X knockoff Bluesky, "No one should face the horrifying prospect of lifelong imprisonment without a fair hearing, let alone in another country."

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