On Tuesday, a federal appeals court blocked the Trump administration from using an 18th-century wartime legislation to quickly deport Venezuelan migrants who were thought to be linked to the Tren de Aragua gang. The court said that the situation did not meet the legal definition of a “invasion” or “predatory incursion.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s three-judge panel issued a preliminary injunction and ordered the matter back to the trial court for more work.
The opinion, written by Judge Leslie H. Southwick and filed on September 2, 2025, said that the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 could not be used in this case. Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez concurred that there is no invasion or predatory intrusion, but she disagreed with the majority’s finding that the government’s revised seven-day removal notice probably meets due process. Judge Andrew Oldham disagreed, saying that courts shouldn’t question a president’s use of the law.
The majority said that the law didn’t apply because “there is no finding that this mass immigration was an armed, organized force or forces.” The panel decided that, even with recent changes to the text from 1798, the rule is meant to stop military attacks from a foreign nation or government, not large-scale illegal invasion.
The court made it clear that its order only relates to the Alien Enemies Act. If necessary, it does not stop the government from deporting the plaintiffs under other immigration laws.
The decision on Tuesday comes after months of quick-moving legal action. The Supreme Court put a stop to removals in April while the Fifth Circuit looked at its earlier decision about whether it had the right to do so. The Court said in May that the appeals court was improper to throw out the case and told lower courts to look at both the merits and the detainees’ right to adequate notice.
The government then changed their notice from about 24 hours to seven days. The Fifth Circuit decided it seems enough based on the current record, but they sent it back for extra fact-finding.
The lawsuit, W.M.M. v. Trump, No. 25-10534, started when detainees at the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Texas fought removal orders that President Trump issued in March 2025 using the Alien Enemies Act against Tren de Aragua.
Earlier this year, the administration deported hundreds of people who were thought to be members of Tren de Aragua. Some were transported to a supermax jail in El Salvador, and many more were taken to Venezuela as part of a prisoner swap in July.
Judge Oldham’s dissent claimed the courts had never “second-guessed the President’s invocation” of the Act before and that it is up to the administration to decide whether an invasion or incursion occurred.
The verdict means that the government can’t use the Alien Enemies Act to remove the plaintiffs, but it can use other immigration laws to do so while the district court looks into due process and class-wide problems.
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