Understanding the Court’s Ruling Against the Wartime Deportation Policy In early May 2025 , a federal judge in Texas ruled that the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act , a wartime law from the early 1800s, to deport Venezuelan migrants was unconstitutional and unlawful. This law was originally designed to allow the U.S. government to detain or remove citizens of hostile nations during a declared war —not as a broad immigration enforcement tool. The administra