By Nicole C. Brambila | Denver Gazette
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Colorado to try to block the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to remove immigrants unlawfully living in the U.S. who are accused of being members of a Venezuelan gang.
The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order to prevent President Donald Trump from using the wartime act, arguing the White House proclamation designating members of Tren de Aragua as “alien enemies” does not satisfy the tenets of the Alien Enemies Act.
Specifically, a gang’s criminal activities “do not constitute an ‘invasion or predatory incursion’ under the AEA and the Act was a wartime authority meant to address ‘military’ attacks,” the ACLU argued in the lawsuit.
ACLU said the temporary restraining order is necessary because the petitioners, which the group called “civilian detainees,” are at “substantial risk of immediate, summary removal” from the U.S.
Attorneys with the ACLU brought the suit on behalf of two Venezuelan men being held at the Aurora Detention Center. Neither of the men, their attorneys said in court documents, is a gang member.
The lawsuit is the third filed in court in recent days, joining similar challenges in Texas and New York.