J.G.G. v. TRUMP

The American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward, and the ACLU of the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration over the president’s unlawful and unprecedented invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. The Alien Enemies Act, passed in 1798, is a wartime authority providing that the president may — after a public proclamation — apprehend, restrain, and remove citizens of a foreign country that is engaged in a “declared war” or “invasion or predatory incursion” against the United States. The lawsuit charges that President Trump has invoked a centuries-old wartime act unlawfully during peacetime to accelerate mass deportations, sidestepping the limits of this wartime authority and the procedures and protections in immigration law. The Alien Enemies Act’s previous use during wartime — for example, its invocation during World War II to justify the internment of people of Japanese ancestry — has correctly drawn sustained criticism. Employing it as a way to evade domestic laws in peacetime against a gang is fundamentally wrong.

The initial complaint covered a nationwide class of individuals at risk of removal under the Alien Enemies Act. After the Supreme Court clarified that individuals challenging their removal under the Alien Enemies Act must bring their lawsuit in the district where they are confined, the lawsuit was amended to include individuals who were removed on March 15 to CECOT, the notorious Salvadoran prison, solely pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act. On June 4, 2025, the district court granted in part Petitioners' motion for a preliminary injunction and ruled that the government must facilitate the class's ability to seek habeas relief to contest their removal under the Alien Enemies Act. The government appealed and the appeal remains pending before the D.C. Circuit.