Judge wildly claims Nazis got better treatment during WWII than Venezuelan migrants deported by Trump

A U.S. appeals court judge said on Monday that Nazis were given more rights to contest their removal from the United States during World War Two than Venezuelan migrants deported by the Trump administration.

In a contentious hearing, U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett questioned government lawyer Drew Ensign on whether Venezuelans targeted for removal under a little-used 18th-century law had time to contest the Trump administrations assertion that they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang before they were put on planes and deported to El Salvador.

Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than has happened here, Millett said, to which Ensign responded, We certainly dispute the Nazi analogy.

Prior to the Trump administrations invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, the law had been used just three times in U.S. history, most recently to intern and remove Japanese, German and Italian immigrants during World War Two.

The Trump administration was asking the appeals court to halt Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasbergs two-week ban, imposed on March 15, on the use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify deportation of alleged Tren de Aragua members without final removal orders from immigration judges.

In a 37-page ruling on Monday, Boasberg said the people Republican President Donald Trumps administration is seeking to deport under the law must be given the chance to challenge the governments assertion that they are indeed members of Tren de Aragua.

Family members of many of the deported Venezuelan migrants deny the alleged gang ties.

The case has emerged as a major test of Trumps sweeping assertion of executive power. 

In a contentious hearing Monday at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, D.C. a U.S. appeals court judge said that Nazis were given more rights to contest their removal from the. United States than a recent group of Venezuelan migrants

U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett said  Monday that Nazis were given more rights to contest their removal than Venezuelan migrants

With Republicans holding a majority in both the House of Representatives and Senate and largely falling in line behind the presidents agenda, federal judges often have emerged as the only constraint on Trumps wave of executive actions.

After Boasberg temporarily halted the deportations, Trump called for the judges impeachment in a process that could lead to his removal. 

In response, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement rebuking Trump and stating that appeals, not impeachment, are the proper response to disagreements with judicial decisions.

Boasberg is also weighing whether the Trump administration violated his order by failing to return deportation flights after his order was issued. 

In Mondays ruling, the judge wrote that the administration appeared to have hustled people onto those planes to avoid a potential court order blocking the deportations.

The judge rejected the Trump administrations request to set aside the two-week deportation ban. 

Trump has argued that it is the judiciary, not his administration, that is overreaching.

Ensign later on Monday told a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that Boasbergs order must be paused because the judge had no right to second-guess the presidents decisions on foreign affairs matters.

The district courts order represents an unprecedented and enormous intrusion upon the powers of the executive branch, Ensign said.

U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett said Trumps actions in this case were unprecedented as well.

The Trump administration on March 15 deported more than 200 people to El Salvador, where they are being detained in the countrys massive anti-terrorism prison under a deal in which Washington is paying President Nayib Bukeles government $6 million.

Boasberg cited accounts of poor conditions in the prison as one justification for maintaining the ban on deportations. 

El Salvadors presidential office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Boasbergs ruling on Monday applied to five plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union involved in a prior more narrow ruling, as well as other Venezuelans in the U.S. who may be targeted for removal under the Alien Enemies Act. 

The judge did not address the migrants currently held in El Salvador.

ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt told reporters after a hearing on Friday that Boasberg has the authority to order those migrants be returned to the U.S., and said he may raise that issue in court.