Judge extends ban on deportations from Colorado stemming from Trump’s use of 1798 law

DENVER — A federal judge has extended her order temporarily preventing the Trump administration from moving or deporting anyone from Colorado under an 18th century wartime act that has become ensnared in a U.S. Supreme Court battle.

District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney cited the high court’s weekend order barring removal of anyone from north Texas, where the ACLU had contended the administration was preparing to deport Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 without giving them the legal notice required under a prior Supreme Court ruling.

Sweeney continued her freeze on removals from Colorado until May 6 and indicated she may extend it further.

She required the federal government to provide 21 days’ notice to anyone it seeks to deport so they can contest their removal. She also expressed skepticism about the legality of Trump’s use of the law to claim the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was invading the United States.

“At a bare minimum, ‘invasion’ means more than the Proclamation’s description of TdA’s ‘infiltrat[ion],’ ‘irregular warfare,’ and ‘hostile actions’ against the United States,” Sweeney wrote.

The Supreme Court earlier this month allowed deportations under the act but required the government to give those targeted a “reasonable” chance to contest the removals in court. The act has only been invoked three times in history, most recently during World War II, and the Supreme Court has yet to hear arguments about whether Trump can use it against a gang.

Several federal judges, including Sweeney, issued orders temporarily halting deportations in their areas in response to the initial high court ruling. The ACLU asked the Supreme Court to halt removals from an immigration detention center in north Texas, where a judge had not barred deportations, because it said Venezuelan migrants were given notice in English of their pending removal and not told they had the right to contest it in court. The court barred those removals in an unusual order early Saturday.

The federal government argued it was too soon for the courts to act because it wasn’t trying to remove the individual plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit at the time. But Timothy Macdonald, an ACLU attorney, contended that was a “shell game” that could lead the government to quickly deport someone the second a court decides it doesn’t have jurisdiction over their case.

Sweeney agreed, extending her order and scheduling arguments for whether she should make it permanent.

Riccardi writes for the Associated Press.