George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s administration is “likely to win” cases against judges attempting to block their deportation efforts.
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in mid-March to deport over 200 members of Tren de Agua, a Venezuelan criminal gang, which has come under legal scrutiny. After an appeals court upheld a federal judge’s ruling to return the deportees, Turley said the Supreme Court will likely object to trial judges’ blockage of the president’s actions.
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“I think there’s a legitimate complaint here. It’s like having a car where every passenger is pressing the emergency break,” Turley said. “It’s pretty hard to drive that car. And what you have here are judges that are imposing national injunctions which the Supreme Court, including liberal justices like Justice [Elena] Kagan have objected to. She said ‘this is madness’ that you have all of these trial judges who are imposing national injunctions. Congress is looking at legislation to curtail the ability of lower court judges to do precisely that. I think there’s merit to that, I think that the Trump administration is likely to win.”
“I also think the Trump administration is likely to prevail in most of these cases. I think that federal judges have overextended themselves, they have intruded into areas of Article II, which is presidential authority,” Turley added.
Turley further added that there are “good faith arguments” on both sides about how the Trump administration used the 18th century law, which allows for immigrants to be deported without a hearing under certain circumstances. The Alien Enemies Act is typically invoked when two countries are at war with one another or if the U.S. is being invaded by a foreign power, raising questions about whether this law was lawfully used to execute the deportations.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, an Obama-era appointee, blocked Trump’s deportations of the criminal gang members in a March 15 ruling after the flights were already in mid-air. The White House has denied defying the judge’s orders, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stating that the planes had left U.S. territory by the time the judge made the ruling.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit refused to lift Boasberg’s ruling in a Wednesday ruling, ultimately bringing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
U.S. authorities captured a top leader of MS-13 early Thursday in Woodbridge, Virginia, located right outside of Washington, D.C.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
