Judge says Trump may use Alien Enemies Act for deportations in Pa.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Tuesday became the first in the nation to allow President Donald Trump’s invocation of a wartime law to fast-track deportations of accused Venezuelan gang members.

But U.S. District Judge Stephanie L. Haines described the administration’s process for carrying out those removals as “constitutionally deficient” and ordered the government to give targeted migrants at least 21 days’ notice and an opportunity to challenge their deportations in court.

The ruling from Haines — whom Trump appointed during his first term in the White House — breaks with decisions earlier this month from federal judges in Colorado, New York and South Texas. They each concluded that it was unlawful for Trump to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to remove alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang outside of the usual immigration court process. All three judges then barred or temporarily paused such deportations in their districts. Hours after Haines’s ruling on Tuesday, a judge in West Texas also temporarily barred Alien Enemies Act deportations.