'This is war': Trump defends use of Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan gang members

Trump defends deporting Venezuelan gang members, calling immigration an "invasion."

U.S. President Donald Trump has defended his administration’s decision to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport over 200 alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang linked to crimes including kidnapping, extortion, and contract killings.

The deportation proceeded despite a court order blocking them, issued by Judge James Boasberg. In an unusual move, the administration defied the ruling, arguing that a judge did not have the authority to halt its actions.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One during a late flight back to Washington from Florida, Trump was asked whether his administration had violated the court order. He declined to comment directly on the legal implications, saying, "I can tell you this, these were bad people," referring to the alleged gang members who were deported to El Salvador, where they were subsequently incarcerated.

Trump justified the use of the wartime law, claiming that the surge in immigration constituted an invasion. “Well, this is a time of war because Biden allowed millions of people, many of them criminals, many of them at the highest level. They emptied jails out of the nations, emptied their jails into the United States. That's an invasion,” he said.

Describing the situation as more dangerous than conventional warfare, Trump argued that the influx of migrants made it harder to identify threats. "So this isn't, in that sense, this is war. In many respects, it's more dangerous than war because, you know, in war, they have uniforms. You know who you're shooting at. You know who you're going after," he added.

The Alien Enemies Act, originally enacted in 1798, allows the president to detain or deport nationals of hostile nations during wartime. The administration’s unprecedented use of the law for immigration enforcement has sparked legal and political debate, particularly over its defiance of judicial authority.