A federal judge in Colorado this week appeared skeptical of allowing the Trump administration to resume using an 18th-century wartime authority to fast-track the removal of Venezuelan migrants with limited notice and minimal, if any, due process.

U.S. District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney on Monday heard arguments from attorneys representing the Justice Department and immigration rights groups regarding whether she should renew a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the government from invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA) to deport migrants to a notorious work camp in El Salvador.

The hearing came after the U.S. Supreme Court in the early morning hours of Saturday issued an order — the first and only Saturday order issued this term — directing the government “not to remove” any immigrant detainees subject to President Donald Trump’s proclamation invoking the AEA in northern Texas.

The Saturday order follows the justices April 7 order in which they unanimously held that “AEA detainees must receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal” under the AEA “within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs.”

In light of the high court’s ruling, an incredulous Sweeney questioned how the government could prevail in the instant case, asking the government’s attorney, “How could I not continue the temporary restraining order?” the Daily Camera reported.

Seeking to have the TRO lifted, the DOJ assured the court that any individuals subject to removal under the act would be given 24 hours to challenge their deportation before a judge, Denver CBS affiliate KCNC reported.

Attorneys from the ACLU and the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, the organizations representing the two unnamed petitioners in the case, pushed back on the administration’s position, asserting that affording migrants only one day to file individual habeas corpus petitions could not possibly comply with the Supreme Court’s directive requiring “reasonable time” for court challenges.

Legal experts were quick to parse the U.S. Supreme Court’s “massively significant” order barring the Trump administration from carrying out deportations using the Alien Enemies Act (AEA).

In a highly unusual early Saturday morning ruling — the first and only Saturday order issued this term — the nation’s high court tersely ordered the government “not to remove” any immigrant detainees subject to deportation flights in the Northern District of Texas.

“[T]he Court didn’t wait at all,” Georgetown University Law Prof. Steve Vladeck wrote on his blog. “This may seem like a technical point, but it underscores how seriously the Court, or at least a majority of it, took the urgency of the matter.”

The law professor noted that the justices waited neither for an appellate court to rule on the issue nor gave the government a chance to respond to the emergency request before issuing the order.

When the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated a temporary restraining order (TRO) prohibiting President Donald Trump from deporting Venezuelan migrants under an 18th century wartime authority, the ruling indicated the case would be adjudicated in Texas, where appeals are overseen by the most conservative federal circuit in the nation. However, a federal judge in New York on Wednesday issued a separate TRO one day after attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a class-action lawsuit in challenging the administration’s fast-tracked deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA) on behalf of two Venezuelan nationals currently being detained in the state.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein granted the petitioners’ request to halt deportations of Venezuelan migrants under the AEA, according to a courtroom report from MSNBC legal contributor Adam Klasfeld. The TRO is not nationwide, reportedly only covering individuals currently detained in the Southern District of New York.

The two unnamed migrants, ages 21 and 32, filed the 21-page lawsuit seeking the emergency ordering preventing the federal government from moving the plaintiffs out of the jurisdiction and from deporting any similarly situated migrants under the AEA.

According to the complaint filed in the Southern District of New York, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s vacating the TRO, the administration “is resuming its summary removals of Venezuelans who are in ongoing immigration proceedings, including Petitioners here, without any judicial review — including by this Court.”

“Respondents seek to move Petitioners in secret, without due process, to a prison in El Salvador known for dire conditions, torture, and other forms of physical abuse — possibly for life,” the complaint states.

The judge scheduled a hearing in the matter for Wednesday.

Trump on March 15, 2025, became the first president since World War II to invoke the AEA, which authorizes him to summarily remove “natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects” of a “hostile nation or government” when there is “declared war” against it or when it has “perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States” an “invasion or predatory incursion.” In a controversial and novel use of the power, Trump declared the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) had committed or attempted an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” such that any member of the group was summarily removable under the Act.

The administration asserted that the gang constituted a “hybrid criminal state” for purposes of invoking the AEA.