BREAKING: Trump Judge Stops Trump Deportation.
BREAKING: A Trump-appointed federal judge in California just slammed the brakes on the administration’s attempt to deport Venezuelan asylum-seeker Darwin Antonio Arevalo Millan under the 226-year-old Alien Enemies Act (AEA) — and did it on due-process grounds.
“The Government is hereby ENJOINED and RESTRAINED from removing or transferring out of this district any member of the putative class … pending further Order of this Court regarding the amount of notice and process that is due prior to removal.”
In a sharply worded order, the judge (yes, appointed by Donald Trump) acknowledged that Congress gave presidents “close to unlimited” power to invoke the AEA. But that power, the court stressed, isn’t a blank check to skip the Constitution: immigrants still must get real notice and a meaningful chance to fight deportation.
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Why it matters
Even statutes written before Lincoln was born don’t override the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process.
This ruling joins other federal courts — including ones in Texas — that have balked at Trump’s mass-deportation push under the AEA.
The decision came from the very kind of judge Trump and the Federalist Society championed. The right-wing playbook says “trust our judges.” Today that trust produced a ruling they definitely didn’t want.
The bigger picture
Trump’s March 14 proclamation (No. 10903) sought to summarily remove Venezuelans alleged to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Arevalo Millan, a documented asylum applicant with work authorization, argued that the order would ship him out with no notice, no hearing, and no chance to clear his name. The court agreed, at least for now, issuing a preliminary injunction that protects Arevalo and similarly situated Venezuelans while the case proceeds.
The question for the MAGAverse
Will the same folks who scream “activist judge!” every time a ruling goes against Trump now aim that label at a Trump-appointed judge defending due-process rights? Or will they suddenly decide that judicial independence isn’t so bad after all?
Thank goodness the judges are beginning to push back. The scenes outside court houses, ripping families apart while they're attending their immigration hearings is diabolical .
They, and he, will say he’s a trump hater.