An appeals court judge claimed on Monday that Nazis were given more rights to contest their removal from the United States during the second world war than Venezuelan migrants deported by the Trump administration.
The comments came during a contentious hearing shortly after a lower court thwarted the Trump administration’s effort to deport the immigrants under a roughly 225-year-old war powers law.
Judge James Boasberg on Monday rejected the government’s attempt to vacate restraining orders protecting Venezuelans accused of gang ties from deportation, instead ruling that individuals must receive hearings before their removal.
“The named Plaintiffs dispute they are members of Tren de Aragua; they may not be deported until a court decides the merits of their challenge,” Boasberg wrote.
Later on Monday, US circuit judge Patricia Millett questioned the government lawyer Drew Ensign on whether Venezuelans targeted for removal under the Alien Enemies Act 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.”
The clash is rooted in Donald Trump’s 15 March proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which permits deportation of foreign nationals during wars or “invasions”. The administration claims activities of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua constitute such an invasion.
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One of the deported alleged gang members is a 23-year-old gay makeup artist with no apparent gang affiliations, who was shipped to El Salvador’s notorious Cecot prison without a hearing alongside hundreds of Venezuelan men. His attorney, Lindsay Toczylowski, went on MSNBC last week and claimed he had “disappeared” despite having a scheduled immigration court appearance, after officials misinterpreted his tattoos as gang symbols.
According to Boasberg’s order, five Venezuelan immigrants had secured emergency relief – hours before the Trump administration said it would use the Alien Enemies Act – fearing immediate deportation without a chance to contest their alleged gang membership. Several of the migrants who filed the lawsuit argue they actually fled Venezuela to escape the gang.
Trump has called Boasberg, an Obama-appointed judge, a “radical left lunatic” and called for his impeachment, prompting the supreme court chief justice, John Roberts, to issue a rare rebuke.
Boasberg explained on Monday that his orders did not block normal immigration enforcement, noting the administration had already designated Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization, allowing deportations through standard channels.
Lawyers for Trump have asked the appeals court to lift Boasberg’s ruling that blocked the administration’s use of the wartime act. If the appeals court rules in their favor, that could give a free hand for the Trump administration to use it to deport any immigrant it accuses of being a gang member without the standard due process owed to accused persons in the US.
Source: theguardian.com
