26 States File Brief Supporting Trump’s Efforts to Deport Venezuela Gang Members

‘The States finally have a welcome partner in the presidency willing to fight for the safety and security of the American people,’ the attorneys general wrote.

A coalition of 26 Republican state attorneys general filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on March 18, supporting President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson co-led 24 other state attorneys general in filing the brief, just days after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt the deportations.

In issuing a 14-day restraining order, Boasberg said the act “does not provide a basis for the president’s proclamation given that the terms invasion, predatory incursion really relate to hostile acts perpetrated by any nation and commensurate to war.”

The amicus brief filed by the attorneys general asks the appeals court to lift the nationwide restraining order, citing concerns for public safety and national security.

It argues that Trump’s March 15 presidential proclamation invoking the 18th-century wartime declaration to speed up the deportations of alleged Tren de Aragua members is grounded in clear constitutional and statutory authority.

The attorneys general further argue that the district court “also erred by failing to afford the President proper deference in his exercise of his statutory and constitutional powers.”

In doing so, “the district court violated important principles of separation of powers,” the brief states.

Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia were among the states to sign the amicus brief.

Trump Says Gangs ‘Conducting Irregular Warfare’

Trump’s proclamation pertains to all Venezuelan nationals who are 14 years old or older, who are members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), and who are not citizens or lawful permanent residents of the United States.

It states that members of the gang are “undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare” against the United States both directly and “at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela.”

“Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA. The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States,” the proclamation states.

Hours after Trump issued the proclamation, lawyers for five Venezuelan detainees being processed for deportation from the United States sued, prompting Boasberg to issue the restraining order.

On March 17, Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to provide information regarding two planes carrying Venezuelans that left the United States for El Salvador despite the temporary ban being in place.

In response to Boasberg’s question, Robert Cerna, an acting field office director for the Enforcement and Removal Operations office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said in a sworn declaration that the two flights had already left U.S. airspace before the judge’s written order was issued.

Cerna said a third plane also departed over the weekend after the order was issued but was carrying only deportees subject to separate Title 8 final removal orders, meaning they were not deported under the Alien Enemies Act alone.

Reuters contributed to this report.