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Civil Rights Groups Call for Accountability over Trump Overreach and Illegal Use of Alien Enemies Act
Attorneys that filed friend of the court briefs before the Fifth Circuit express disappointment in latest decision, resolve to support challenges to the wartime act.
SAN FRANCISCO — Yesterday, the Fifth Circuit dismissed the case W.M.M. v. Trump, not weighing in on whether challenges to deportations of Venezuelan immigrants under Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act were constitutional and what notice was required by due process before deportation. The court dismissed the case on the basis of process, as the Trump administration deported the three individuals using different legal grounds.
The case on behalf of three individuals and a class is one of many pending across the country fighting attempts by the administration to target a group using a wartime law based on nationality, alleged gang affiliation, and flimsy evidence such as tattoos – without any opportunity for people to challenge the allegations made against them. Previously, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Venezuelan nationals deported to El Salvador had a constitutional right to due process and right to notice and judicial review before removal. In May 2025, the Supreme Court confirmed that due process requires adequate notice and time for detainees to seek habeas relief before removal, and importantly, blocked the government from removing people detained under the Act.
In June 2025, the Asian Law Caucus, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC (Advancing Justice – AAJC), and Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality filed an amicus brief asking the court to heed the lessons of history and ensure judicial review of executive actions and orders. The brief was filed on the behalf of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and more than 60 Japanese American and Asian American organizations. The last time the United States used unsubstantiated evidence to incarcerate people under the wartime law was the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Survivors and their descendants have kept the memory of this painful period alive, retelling stories how the federal government tore families apart and how many were never able to recover their properties or businesses. Amici were all Asian American organizations that are committed to sharing this collective history to prevent the U.S. from unjustly targeting other immigrant groups today.
The following are reactions to yesterday’s ruling:
“We only need to look at our country’s shameful history of scapegoating Japanese Americans to know that the President’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act is unjust and unsubstantiated,” said Aarti Kohli, executive director at Asian Law Caucus. “When the government accuses someone of wrongdoing, we all have the constitutional right to challenge those allegations. The invocation of a rarely used wartime power to illegally expedite the deportations of people without real evidence is yet another example of how the Trump administration manipulates the law to further its hate-fueled agenda. While the court declined to decide whether use of the Act is lawful, the Trump administration must be held accountable.”
“JACL knows the grave harm that results when the government invokes the Alien Enemies Act without meaningful due process that was used to detain Japanese during WWII," said Larry Oda, former JACL National president. "My father, Junichi Oda, lived legally in the US for 25 years when he was taken to jail without notice under the Alien Enemies Act and detained for over three years, rejoining his family at the Crystal City, Texas Department of Justice internment camp, where I was born. He was among more than 17,000 Japanese immigrants detained during World War II on assertions of a threat to national security—yet no evidence of wrongdoing was ever found. That history is why JACL is deeply disappointed the court did not reach the merits. We will keep working to repeal this archaic law so no community is again stripped of due process and targeted, detained, or deported on unproven claims that override constitutional rights and human dignity."
John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC, said, "As other challenges to the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act proceed, it is essential that courts not unduly defer to the government's unsubstantiated claims of 'national security.' We only need to look to the Supreme Court's disastrous decision in Korematsu to see what happens when courts fail to hold the government to its burden of proof. Not only do innocent people pay the price, but, as Justice Jackson's dissent in Korematsu pointed out, the precedent itself can then legitimate further rights violations."