ANKARA

A US federal appeals court on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from using a centuries-old wartime statute to deport Venezuelans accused of ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, saying the law does not apply to immigration enforcement.

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a preliminary injunction, finding that the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 could not be stretched to cover the removals. The panel rejected the administration’s claim that the gang’s activities amounted to a “warlike invasion.”

“Our analysis leads us to grant a preliminary injunction to prevent removal because we find no invasion or predatory incursion,” the majority opinion said, according to NBC News.

The Trump administration had designated Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization in February and argued it was conducting “irregular warfare” by driving illegal migration. The Supreme Court in April had already stopped an earlier attempt to deport alleged members, ruling that a 24-hour notice period was inadequate.

Civil liberties groups welcomed the latest decision. Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union said: “The Trump administration’s attempt to use a wartime statute during peacetime to regulate immigration was rightly shut down by the court.”

The appeals panel stressed that its ruling was confined to the Alien Enemies Act and did not bar the government from pursuing other legal tools to remove suspected foreign terrorists.