FILE PHOTO: A Venezuelan migrant looks on following his arrival on a flight after being deported from the United States, in Caracas, Venezuela, March 24, 2025. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/File photo
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump's administrationfrom using an 18th-century wartime law to deport some Venezuelan migrants, in the most sweeping ruling thus far against a key part of the Republican president's aggressive immigration crackdown.
In a 36-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez in Brownsville, Texas, ruled that the Trump administration exceeded the scope of the Alien Enemies Act by using it to speed up the deportations of alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.The government labels the gang a terrorist organization.
