Court rejects Trump admin's bid to use wartime law for deportations

A federal appeals court in the US on Wednesday refused to lift an order barring the Donald Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law.

A split three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the district of Columbia Circuit upheld a March 15 order temporarily prohibiting deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

Invoking the law for the first time since World War II, President Donald Trump's administration deported hundreds of people under a presidential proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force. 

The Justice Department appealed after US district judge James Boasberg blocked more deportations and ordered planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to return to the US.

That did not happen.

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan non-citizens who were being held in Texas.

The case has become a flashpoint amid escalating tension between the White House and the federal courts.