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An appeals court judge said Monday that Nazis were treated better under the Alien Enemies Act than Venezuelan migrants removed from the US and flown to El Salvador earlier this month.
CBS News reports that Judge Patricia Millett while admonishing the Justice Department during oral arguments said: “Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than has happened here.”
Millett noted that during World War II, Nazis were put before hearing boards under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, and the Trump administration has conceded the alleged Tren De Aragua gang members deported to El Salvador and detained in a maximum security prison did not have the chance to appear in court.
The judge said the question at hand wasn’t the use of the act, but rather, the right of detainees to have due process and challenge their status as accused members of the gang.
Millett said migrants may continue to be detained under the Alien Enemies Act, but they may not be deported until a preliminary injunction to stop the removals is decided.
She said: “No president has ever used the statute this way.
The government’s attorney Drew Ensign said: “We certainly dispute the Nazi ideology.”
Judge Justin Walker asked Ensign whether individual hearings were required before deportations, as D.C. District Chief James Boasberg wrote in his order on Monday.
Ensign responded, “I agree with part of that.”
“There are some individualized Habeas hearings being heard in Texas,” Walker said before asking, “If they can bring a habeas petition and say they’re not members of (Tren de Aragua) … how would they bring that habeas claim?”
Millett also asked Ensign about the men who were deported to El Salvador as gang members: “Were people on planes last weekend given the ability to file habeas?”
The government responded in the affirmative, the five plaintiffs appeared in court. However, the plaintiffs were not on the deportation flights at the centre of the case, and they remain in custody in Texas.
Ensign said he did not know how many migrants are being held in the US under the AEA and said those who are currently held are being detained under Title 8 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. He argued that habeas petitions to appeal detention could be filed on behalf of this class in Texas.
Millett asked Ensign whether “the government consider itself within its right to pack every member of this class on an airplane before there is a reasonable amount of time to file a habeas petition?”
Ensign later responded that the statute does not require such notice, that they were being detained as Tren de Aragua members
