OAN Staff Blake Wolf
4:33 PM – Monday, March 24, 2025
A Barack Obama-appointed federal judge slammed President Donald Trump, claiming that the United States treated Nazis better during World War II than the Trump administration has treated the Venezuelan gang members.
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In 2013, Obama nominated Patricia Millett to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Judge Millett’s comments were in reference to the over 200 Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members who were deported last week — which was carried out through the Alien Enemies Act.
“Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States. TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking,” the White House stated.
The judge explained her thoughts on the matter.
“There were plane loads of people. There were no procedures in place to notify people,” Millett asserted, grilling a Justice Department lawyer over the deportation of the illegal immigrants.
“Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than has happened here,” she continued. “There’s no regulations, and nothing was adopted by the agency officials that were administering this. The people weren’t given notice. They weren’t told where they were going. They were given those people on those planes on that Saturday and had no opportunity to file habeas or any type of action to challenge the removal.”
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign responded soon after, stating: “Well, Your Honor, we certainly dispute the Nazi ideology,” pointing out that some of the individuals were able to file habeas petitions.
A habeas petition is a legal filing individuals can make to challenge the legality of their detention — where a court will determine if their detainment was justified under the law.
District Judge James Boasberg, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, had also temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s ability to deport illegals from the country under the Alien Enemies Act on March 15th.
Boasberg also denied the federal government’s request to lift the temporary hold on deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, claiming that the deported individuals are up against a “likelihood of potential torture.”
“In Salvadoran prisons, deportees are reportedly ‘highly likely to face immediate and intentional life-threatening harm at the hands of state actors,’” he wrote. “As the government itself concedes, the awesome power granted by the Act may be brought to bear only on those who are, in fact, ‘alien enemies.’”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has requested the appeals court to intervene and are expected to issue a decision in the coming days.
Millett continued, explaining to Ensign that she “feels like there was no time” for the individuals to challenge the detentions, and “were only able to [file] because the district court froze things.”
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