Ruling heavily in the president’s favor, a federal judge shared her opinion on deportations under the Alien Enemies Act with an added slight against judicial activism.
The ongoing lawfare against President Donald Trump has only intensified upon his return to office, as it seems most actions he pursues are challenged in court. Now, after two judges have ruled against the deportation of gang-affiliated illegal aliens following Trump’s invocation of the 1798 statute, U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Haines affirmed the president’s authority to proceed — with a catch.
In her 43-page ruling issued Tuesday regarding a Venezuelan petitioner identified as A.S.R. and “others similarly situated,” the judge out of the Western District of Pennsylvania found that the AEA can be used, but the government has failed to give sufficient notice before doing so to facilitate legal challenges from the petitioners. Specifically, Haines called for 21 days’ notice and an “opportunity to be heard” as opposed to 12-24 hours suggested by the government.
“… this Court’s unflagging obligation is to apply the law as written. When the Court does so, it finds that the Proclamation now at issue complies with the AEA, and the court further finds that Respondents must provide greater notice to those subject to removal under the AEA than they are currently providing,” the judge wrote before taking a swipe at any attempting to legislate from the bench. “Having done its job, the Court now leaves it to the Political Branches of the government, and ultimately to the people who elect those individuals, to decide whether the laws and those executing them continue to reflect their will.”
BREAKING: Federal Judge Stephanie Haines rules that President Trump may continue deportations of gang members using the Alien Enemies Act.
“This Court’s unflagging obligation is to apply the law as written. When the Court does so, it finds that the Proclamation now at issue… pic.twitter.com/3r9J4GaVZS
— America (@america) May 13, 2025
The Trump-appointed judge asserted, “It would be intolerable that courts, without the relevant information, should review and perhaps nullify actions of the Executive taken on information properly held in secret.”
Haines’ opinion also addressed the justification of the use of the AEA as the illegal aliens designated for deportation have been deemed members of a Foreign Terrorist Organization, like the prison gang Tren de Aragua, per the State Department’s fulfillment of the president’s day-one executive order that included TdA and MS-13 as well international cartels.
“First, the AEA does not require an ‘invasion or predatory incursion’ to be ‘perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by the military of any foreign nation or government[.]’ … The italicized words are not present in the text, and the word ‘military’ is not in Section 21,” detailed the judge. “Accordingly, if ‘predatory incursion’ necessitates ‘military’ action, that necessity must come from the meaning of ‘predatory incursion’ as of 1798, not the statute itself.”
Blaze Media Senior Editor Daniel Horowitz remarked on Haines’ opinion, “Important that Judge Haines notes the gangs don’t need to be official militaries of state actors in order to be deemed invaders.”
Important that Judge Haines notes the gangs don’t need to be official militaries of state actors in order to be deemed invaders. https://t.co/DEuADJfoPU pic.twitter.com/JqSbJqcJyo
— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) May 13, 2025
The latest ruling on the use of the AEA to remove illegal aliens from the country followed other federal judges ruling against the government, including the Trump-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. out of the Southern District of Texas who argued that the “historical record renders clear that the President’s invocation of the AEA through the Proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute and is contrary to the plain, ordinary meaning of the statute’s terms,” and, by his assertion, the criminal actions of the aliens in question had not been “through an organized armed attack, or that Venezuela has threatened or attempted such an attack through TdA members.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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