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Alien Enemies Act

En Banc Fifth Circuit Dismisses Alien Enemies Act Case as Moot

The ruling does not address whether Trump properly invoked the Act.

Ilya Somin | 8.13.2026 6:19 PM

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Today, the en banc US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit dismissed, as moot, W.M.M. v. Trump, an important case about whether President Donald Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as a tool for peacetime mass deportation is legal.

The AEA allows detention and deportation of foreign citizens of relevant countries (including legal migrants, as well as illegal ones) "[w]henever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government." Trump seeks to use the AEA to deport Venezuelans  the administration claims are members of the Tren de Aragua drug gang. Last fall, the Fifth Circuit ruled that Trump's action is illegal because illegal migration and drug smuggling do not qualify as an "invasion" or a "predatory incursion" of the kind necessary to invoke the AEA. Later, the Fifth Circuit decided to rehear the case en banc before all 17 of the court's judges.

Today, the en banc court dismissed the case for procedural reasons, because all three of the named plaintiffs have been deported by the government, under statutes separate from the AEA. I will not attempt to comment on the procedural issues involved here, which are best left to people with greater........

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