Circuit Court Judge Patricia Millett said Nazis detained in the U.S. during World World II received better legal treatment than Venezuelan immigrants who were were deported to El Salvador this month.
“We certainly dispute the Nazi analogy,” Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign responded during a hearing of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Millett, an Obama appointed judge, is one of three appellate judges who will decide whether to lift a March 15 order, issued by another Obama appointed judge, temporarily prohibiting deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. They didn't rule from the bench Monday.
Judge Justin Walker, whom Trump nominated in 2020, seemed to be more receptive to the administration’s arguments based on his line of questioning. Walker pointed to the government’s arguments that the plaintiffs should have filed their lawsuit in Texas, where the immigrants were detained.
“You could have filed the exact same complaint you filed here in Texas district court,” Walker told American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt.
Walker also pressed the plaintiffs’ lawyer to cite any prior case in which a judicial order blocking “a national security operation with foreign implications” survived appellate review.
Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was nominated by Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1990, was the third judge on the panel. She didn’t ask any questions during a hearing that lasted roughly two hours.
