On March 15, 2025, President Trump issued and Executive Order (EO) titled, “Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act Regarding the Invasion of The United States by Tren De Aragua,” which invokes a 1798 law that was enacted as part of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, designed to allow the President to detain or remove foreign nationals from enemy nations during wartime. It’s the same law that was used during World War II, to justify the internment of Japanese, German, and Italian nationals in the United States. The EO finds that Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that the Trump administration designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on February 20, 2025, is “perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States” and “undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States.” The EO also states that all of Tren de Aragua’s members are subject to “immediate apprehension, detention, and removal” and cannot reside in the United States.

There were deportations carried out under this authority over the weekend of March 15-16, where alleged members of Tren de Aragua were removed to El Salvador. This action was challenged in federal court in Washington DC. The judge in the case issued a temporary restraining order blocking the transfers and ordering that any detainees be immediately returned to the United States. There are multiple reports that the administration may have violated the judge’s order by continuing to fly people subject to the order to El Salvador after the court had ruled that they must not be taken there or be returned. The Trump administration has denied that their actions violated the judge’s order.