Well, here’s a new wrinkle. A federal judge finally came out and said Trump cannot use the Alien Enemies Act to round up and deport immigrants without due process. Even better, the judge who ruled this is a Trump appointee. This is from the New York Times:
A federal judge on Thursday permanently barred the Trump administration from invoking the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law, to deport Venezuelans it has deemed to be criminals from the Southern District of Texas, saying that the White House’s use of the statute was illegal.
Well, okay, this ruling only applies to the Southern District of Texas. This district takes in Houston, Galveston, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, and Laredo, plus some places I haven’t heard of. Later in the article it says the ruling only applies to Venezuelan immigrants. But it’s something.
The 36-page ruling by Judge Rodriguez, a President Trump appointee, amounted to a philosophical rejection of the White House’s attempts to transpose the Alien Enemies Act, which was passed in 1798 as the nascent United States was threatened by war with France, into the context of modern-day immigration policy.
Here is a link to the decision; it’s interesting. I’ve only read a bit but I intend to read it all later.
“The court concludes that as a matter of law, the executive branch cannot rely on the A.E.A., based on the proclamation, to detain the named petitioners and the certified class, or to remove them from the country,” Judge Rodriguez wrote.
He also found that the “plain ordinary meaning” of the act’s language, like “invasion” and “predatory incursion,” referred to an attack by “military forces” and did not line up with Mr. Trump’s claims about the activities of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan street gang, in a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act.
So we are not, in fact, at war with Venezuela.
Lee Gelernt, the A.C.L.U.’s lead lawyer in the cases, praised the ruling by Judge Rodriguez.
“This decision correctly recognized that the president cannot simply declare there’s an invasion and invoke a wartime authority during peacetime,” Mr. Gelernt said. “As the court recognized, Congress never intended this law to be used in this manner.”
And then a bit later …
Early in his decision, Judge Rodriguez rebuffed an argument by the Justice Department that he lacked the authority to even consider the White House’s use of the act, which has only been used three times in U.S. history: during the War of 1812 and during World Wars I and II.
Department lawyers have consistently maintained that even judges have no power to intrude on the president’s decisions in matters of foreign policy. And while Judge Rodriguez acknowledged that the Alien Enemies Act gives the president “broad powers,” he also said that judges still have the ability to determine whether presidents were using the law correctly.
Judges certainly do have the authority to say whether a presidential administration is violating the Constitution. And since when is detaining immigrants or anybody else on our soil and deporting them to who knows where a matter of “foreign policy”? Y’all are doin’ this stuff here, dudes. The only foreign government involved, so far, is that of El Salvador, and that’s only because the administration is paying El Salvador to warehouse people. This is not about “foreign policy.” What nonsense.
The result of this is that unless and until Judge Rodriquez is reversed on appeal, Trump can’t detain and deport people from the southern district of Texas under authority of the Alien Enemies Act. And while that’s kind of limited, I understand this is the first court ruling that directly addressed the plain fact that Trump’s interpretation and use of the AEA is bonkers.
In another development today, it’s reported that Michael Waltz is no longer the national security advisor. He is now the official scapegoat for the Signal Chat scandal. Trump is still standing by Pete Hegseth, possibly because Trump doesn’t want to admit Hegseth was a stupid choice for the job of Secretary of Defense. If you count Trump’s first term, Waltz is Trump’s fifth national security advisor. At least he lasted longer than Michael Flynn (January 20, 2017–February 13, 2017).
But, hey — just now, the Washington Post reported that Trump is appointing Waltz as ambassador to the UN. So he’s not good enough to be national security advisor, so let’s park him in the UN where no one will notice?
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he plans to nominate Michael Waltz as U.N. ambassador, hours after reports emerged that he would be replacing Waltz in his current position as national security adviser. Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as national security adviser on an interim basis while continuing to lead the State Department.
Yeah, like the Secretary of State isn’t that busy, I guess.
What a bunch of amateurs. So pathetic.
I read a legal summary of the judgment. The judge called BS on the attempt by Pam Bondi to delay. He seemed to think DOJ had to have evidence and proof in order to continue to hold (much less deport) two people in the US legally. I seem to remember the decision was fairly lengthy. IMO, DOJ has to appeal and whoever loses has to take it to the USSC. The judge ordered the immediate release of the two Venezuelans in custody. I do not know if they have been released.
Trump is betting heavily on being able to do deportations without due process including deportations to hell-hole prisons as a deterrent to future migration. Trump is publically flirting with deporting Americans to foreign prisons. (Also as a deterrent to opposition, IMO) Firm constraints from the USSC will deter Trump, or force him to overtly defy the High Court. IMO, if Trump defies the USSC, he threatens his own credibility if he tries even more overt violations of US law, such as using the military for domestic law enforcement and in suspending elections. If the military (not the Pentagon) decides to ignore illegal orders, Trump is toast. We're charging to that point at a fast pace. Trump does not want to back down and look weak, but a confrontation too soon is a huge strategic error.
We are not at war, in two wars by proxy, and have forces in action in who knows how many places. We are not at peace anywhere, even with ourselves much less our best allies. The best you get today is a light trade war and faux friendly relationship or as a Red State a taken for granted situation sort of. No one has peace and quiet.
We are at war with immigrants, and the government wants as close to gas chambers and concentration camps as it can get and to the right to genocide. Gaza does not bother them. Starving people and war crimes are being generally ignored. The end justifies any means even to control people with no power over anything even to stay alive. We are in moral and ethical bankruptcy and on track for fiscal bankruptcy. What we are richer than ever in is hypocrisy, dishonesty, and corruption.
I keep asking myself what is their limit? How far is too far? So far, I see no sign of any bounds at all. It is like watching a group of morbidly obese people on an eating binge.