'Nazis got better treatment': Judge scolds Trump administration over gang deportations

An appeals court judge blasted the Trump administration on Monday for giving Venezuelan gang suspects fewer rights than Nazis had in defending themselves against emergency deportations.

U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett was grilling the Justice Department over deportations of more than 200 Venezuelan gang suspects to El Salvador earlier this month, saying the government didn’t give the migrants enough chance to challenge their deportations before they were ousted.

“Nazis got better treatment under the AEA than has happened here,” she said.

President Trump is using the Alien Enemies Act to speed the deportations, having declared Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang, to be involved in an “invasion” or “incursion” into the U.S.

A district judge has ordered a halt to the deportations under the law, saying early Monday that migrants must have some sort of hearing to determine whether they are a member of the gang before they are ousted.

The Trump administration has appealed the blockade to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

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Judge Millett said when the Alien Enemies Act was used against German Nazis after World War II, they were allowed hearings to determine whether they actually were subject to the 1798 law.

Drew Ensign, the Justice Department lawyer arguing the case, disputed the Nazi comparison.

He said the Venezuelans at stake had the chance to go to courts for what’s known as a habeas review — and indeed, he said, some of those challenges have been brought to block future deportations.