Colorado Federal Court Blocks Removals Under Alien Enemies Act 

Affiliate: Ƶ of Colorado
May 6, 2025 8:00 pm

Media Contact
125 Broad Street
18th Floor
New York, NY 10004
United States

Ruling follows similar one in New York earlier today

DENVER — A Colorado federal court has issued a preliminary injunction blocking removals under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) for people within that court’s judicial district. The ruling follows a similar one from a New York federal court earlier today. The Colorado case is D.B.U. v. Trump.

The court ruled the presidential proclamation exceeds the scope of the Alien Enemies Act because there is no “invasion,” “predatory incursion,” or “foreign nation or government” as required under the act.

The Colorado ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by the Ƶ, Ƶ of Colorado, and the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.

The following is reaction to today’s ruling:

“The court properly recognized that the president cannot simply ignore the constraints Congress placed on the use of this extraordinary wartime authority,” said Ƶ attorney Lee Gelernt, lead counsel in the case.

“The court has again affirmed what we have always known to be true: deporting and disappearing people without notice or due process is cruel, unconscionable, and unlawful,” said Tim Macdonald, Ƶ of Colorado legal director. “The federal government cannot misuse the Alien Enemies Act, a two-centuries old law that was passed in 1798 to provide narrow wartime powers and has only been used three times in our country’s history. We will keep fighting to ensure no one else is subjected to this nightmare instigated by the Trump administration. No one, including the federal government, is above the law.”

“The federal government has disappeared people. People who lived in our Colorado community are gone, imprisoned in El Salvador. Instead of watching and waiting, our clients took action on behalf of themselves and countless others similarly situated in the Aurora ICE detention facility. Their bravery, the diligent work of our co-counsel at the Ƶ, and the team of steadfast advocates at RMIAN worked together to gain protection against this heartless and lawless government action,” said Laura Lunn, director of advocacy and litigation at the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.

The ruling is online here.

Learn More Ƶ the Issues in This Press Release