Trump’s fight over rarely used 18th-century deportation law lives on in latest court clash

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a legal challenge to the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act against alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua after all named plaintiffs in the case had been deported. The 1798 law permits the president to deport nationals of a country at war with or committing hostile acts against the United States without standard immigration proceedings. The court found the case moot because the individual defendants were no longer in the country. The administration invoked the statute in 2025 against individuals it identified as members of the gang.

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