The full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has shut down a legal challenge over the Trump administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to expel suspected Venezuelan gang affiliates, determining the matter is no longer live since every named plaintiff has alrEADy left the country under separate immigration authorities. The Thursday ruling from the New Orleans-based court sidesteps any verdict on whether the administration’s use of the 1798 statute was legally sound.
All three individuals tied to the case—identified as alleged members of Tren de Aragua—were removed from U.S. soil through other legal channels, which the court said strips the dispute of any active controversy. The decision arrives after the Supreme Court blocked the government from immediately removing the alleged gang members without offering them any opportunity to challenge the move. That earlier action sent the case back down to the appellate level, where a three-judge panel initially sided against the government in September.
However, the broader 17-member court, often labeled the nation’s most conservative, agreed to revisit the matter in January following a push from the administration. Now, with Thursday’s dismissal from the full bench, the case ends without a definitive judgment on the core legal questions. Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod authored the opinion, pointing out that the Supreme Court had explicitly permitted the government to proceed with removals under alternative statutes, and the plaintiffs failed to identify any flaws in how they were expelled.
The court also rejected a bid from the plaintiffs’ legal team to swap in new parties to keep the litigation alive. That refusal, combined with the mootness finding, effectively closes the door on this particular challenge. Lawyers for the deported men had argued the case warranted continued review, but the panel saw no lingering dispute to resolve.
This outcome highlights how the administration’s aggressive use of the Alien Enemies Act has largely stalled, and it likely pushes any definitive Supreme Court clarification on the matter further down the road. The law itself, a rarely used measure, was invoked to deport alleged Tren de Aragua members, yet the high court’s earlier ruling curtailed how swiftly that authority could be applied.
The source account offers no additional insight into the administration’s stance beyond the court’s written opinion, and no official comment has been reported.