Washington DC [US], March 25: A U.S. appeals court judge said on Monday that Nazis were given more rights to contest their removal from the United States during World War Two than Venezuelan migrants deported by the Trump administration.
In a contentious hearing, U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett questioned government lawyer Drew Ensign on whether Venezuelans targeted for removal under a little-used 18th-century law had time to contest the Trump administration's assertion that they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang before they were put on planes and deported to El Salvador.
"Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than has happened here," Millett said, to which Ensign responded, "We certainly dispute the Nazi analogy."
Prior to the Trump administration's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, the law had been used just three times in U.S. history, most recently to intern and remove Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants during World War Two.
The Trump administration was asking the appeals court to halt Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's two-week ban, imposed on March 15, on the use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify deportation of alleged Tren de Aragua members without final removal orders from immigration judges.
Millett, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, is one of three judges on a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit hearing the government's challenge to Boasberg's order.
U.S. Circuit Judge Justin Walker, who was appointed by Trump during his first term as president, appeared more supportive of the government's arguments. The third judge on the panel, Karen Henderson, was appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush. The court did not say when it would rule.
In a 37-page ruling on Monday, Boasberg said the people Republican President Donald Trump's administration is seeking to deport under the law must be given the chance to challenge the government's stance that they are indeed members of Tren de Aragua.
Family members of many of the deported Venezuelan migrants deny the alleged gang ties.
The case has emerged as a major test of Trump's sweeping assertion of executive power. With Republicans holding a majority in both the House of Representatives and Senate and largely falling in line behind the president's agenda, federal judges often have emerged as the only constraint on Trump's wave of executive actions.
After Boasberg temporarily halted the deportations, Trump called for the judge's impeachment in a process that could lead to his removal. In response, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement rebuking Trump and stating that appeals, not impeachment, are the proper response to disagreements with judicial decisions.
Boasberg is also weighing whether the Trump administration violated his order by failing to return deportation flights after his order was issued. In Monday's ruling, the judge wrote that the administration appeared to have "hustled people onto those planes" to avoid a potential court order blocking the deportations.
Boasberg rejected the Trump administration's request to set aside the two-week deportation ban. Trump has argued that it is the judiciary, not his administration, that is overreaching.
Ensign told the appeals judges that Boasberg's order must be paused because the judge had no right to second-guess the president's decisions on foreign affairs matters.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation