Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, says hundreds of illegal aliens “should have been afforded the right” to deny that they are associated with the Tren de Aragua or MS-13 gangs before they were deported from the United States by President Donald Trump’s administration.
As Breitbart News reported, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to begin deporting hundreds of illegal alien gang members with Tren de Aragua and the MS-13 gangs, both of which are now designated as terrorist organizations.
As two deportation flights were underway, headed to El Salvador’s mega-prison, two left-wing groups sued and Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order — stopping Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport more gang members.
On Wednesday, an appellate court upheld Boasberg’s ability to block Trump from deporting gang members under the Alien Enemies Act.
Now, Raskin is demanding the Trump administration hand over details regarding the deportation flights to El Salvador, even as Attorney General (AG) Pam Bondi has said such details are protected under state secret privileges.
According to Raskin, the illegal aliens should have been allowed to defend themselves against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) assertion that they are gang members:
I write to demand answers about the Administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act (AEA or Act), to forcibly remove non-citizens from the interior of the United States to a dangerous prison in El Salvador. The idea that the President of the United States can merely declare that the U.S. is being invaded—not by a foreign country but by a criminal gang—and then ship people off to yet another country to hand them over to a foreign dictator is shocking. Moreover, it is terrifying to think that these people being held indefinitely in an authoritarian mega-prison were sent there without any opportunity in America to appear before a judge, hear the evidence against them, establish that theirs is a case of mistaken identity, or challenge the substantive claims against them. It is a Kafkaesque violation of Due Process which runs counter to every basic principle of the American justice system. [Emphasis added]
…
The families and attorneys of the deported men have spoken out on their behalf, to rebut the government’s claims of gang membership. Under our immigration laws, these non-citizens should have been afforded the right to present these personal rebuttals in immigration court, but the Administration stole that opportunity from them by summarily removing them to El Salvador—a country to which they have no ties—without even a semblance of American Due Process. [Emphasis added]
Raskin is asking for information regarding the names of the illegal aliens deported to the El Salvador mega-prison, the number of illegal aliens on each flight, and whether they have pending asylum applications in the United States, among other details.
“This regime of fear does not just affect non-citizens, it affects us all,” Raskin writes. “With no apparent requirement for proof of criminality, gang affiliation, or legal status preventing ICE from deporting people under the AEA, there is nothing protecting innocent people, including U.S. citizens, from getting swept up in these removals, should they be allowed to continue.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
